arms, to rich and poor alike; and at night, I hold a lantern over my
head, both to show where I am, and keep people out of the gutters.

At this sultry noontide, I am cupbearer to the parched populace, for
whose benefit an iron goblet is chained to my waist. Like a dram-seller
on the mall, at musterday, 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!

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 burned to a cinder, or
melted down to nothing at all, in the fashion of a jelly-fish. 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 great 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. Mercy
on you, man! the water absolutely hisses down your red-hot gullet, and is
converted quite to steam, in the miniature tophet, which you mistake for
a stomach. Fill again, and tell me, on the word of an honest toper, did