shade throughout, large heavy seals, of some metal or other that would
take a polish, dangling from his fob as his only personal ornament.
Shaking the water-drops from his low-crowned glazed hat, he said, 'I must
ask for a few minutes' shelter, comrades, or I shall be wetted to my skin
before I get to Casterbridge.'

'Make yourself at home, master,' said the shepherd, perhaps a trifle less
heartily than on the first occasion. Not that Fennel had the least tinge
of niggardliness in his composition; but the room was far from large,
spare chairs were not numerous, and damp companions were not altogether
desirable at close quarters for the women and girls in their
bright-coloured gowns.

However, the second comer, after taking off his greatcoat, and hanging
his hat on a nail in one of the ceiling-beams as if he had been specially
invited to put it there, advanced and sat down at the table. This had
been pushed so closely into the chimney-corner, to give all available
room to the dancers, that its inner edge grazed the elbow of the man who
had ensconced himself by the fire; and thus the two strangers were
brought into close companionship. They nodded to each other by way of
breaking the ice of unacquaintance, and the first stranger handed his
neighbour the family mug--a huge vessel of brown ware, having its upper
edge worn away like a threshold by the rub of whole generations of
thirsty lips that had gone the way of all flesh, and bearing the
following inscription burnt upon its rotund side in yellow letters

THERE IS NO FUN
UNTiLL i CUM.

The other man, nothing loth, raised the mug to his lips, and drank on,