the public square, on a muster day, I cry aloud to all and sundry, in my
plainest accents, and at the very tiptop of my voice. "Here it is,
gentlemen! Here is the good liquor! Walk up, walk up, gentlemen, walk up,
walk up! Here is the superior stuff! Here is the unadulterated ale of
father Adam! better than Cognac, Hollands, Jamaica, strong beer, or wine
of any price; here it is, by the hogshead or the single glass, and not a
cent to pay. Walk up, gentlemen, walk up and help yourselves!"

5. It were a pity if all this outcry should draw no customers. Here they
come. A hot day, gentlemen. Quaff and away again, so as to keep yourselves
in a nice, cool sweat. You, my friend, will need another cupful to wash
the dust out of your throat, if it be as thick there as it is on your
cowhide shoes. I see that you have trudged half a score of miles to-day,
and, like a wise man, have passed by the taverns, and stopped at the
running brooks and well curbs. Otherwise, betwixt heat without and fire
within, you would have been burnt to a cinder, or melted down to nothing
at all--in the fashion of a jellyfish.

6. Drink, and make room for that other fellow, who seeks my aid to quench
the fiery fever of last night's potations, which he drained from no cup of
mine. Welcome, most rubicund sir! You and I have been strangers hitherto;
nor, to confess the truth, will my nose be anxious for a closer intimacy,
till the fumes of your breath be a little less potent.

7. Mercy on you, man! The water absolutely hisses down your red-hot
gullet, and is converted quite into steam in the miniature Tophet, which
you mistake for a stomach. Fill again, and tell me, on the word of an
honest toper, did you ever, in cellar, tavern, or any other kind of
dramshop, spend the price of your children's food for a swig half so
delicious? Now, for the first time these ten years, you know the flavor of