right to stand on false delicacy, and deny that he is so gifted; for
that is a turning of his back on Natur, a flouting of her, a slighting
of her precious caskets, and a proving of one's self to be a swine that
isn't worth her scattering pearls before.'

The landlord pausing here for a very long time, Mr Parkes naturally
concluded that he had brought his discourse to an end; and therefore,
turning to the young man with some austerity, exclaimed:

'You hear what your father says, Joe? You wouldn't much like to tackle
him in argeyment, I'm thinking, sir.'

'IF,' said John Willet, turning his eyes from the ceiling to the face of
his interrupter, and uttering the monosyllable in capitals, to apprise
him that he had put in his oar, as the vulgar say, with unbecoming
and irreverent haste; 'IF, sir, Natur has fixed upon me the gift of
argeyment, why should I not own to it, and rather glory in the same?
Yes, sir, I AM a tough customer that way. You are right, sir. My
toughness has been proved, sir, in this room many and many a time, as I
think you know; and if you don't know,' added John, putting his pipe in
his mouth again, 'so much the better, for I an't proud and am not going
to tell you.'

A general murmur from his three cronies, and a general shaking of
heads at the copper boiler, assured John Willet that they had had good
experience of his powers and needed no further evidence to assure them
of his superiority. John smoked with a little more dignity and surveyed
them in silence.

'It's all very fine talking,' muttered Joe, who had been fidgeting in
his chair with divers uneasy gestures. 'But if you mean to tell me that
I'm never to open my lips--'

'Silence, sir!' roared his father. 'No, you never are. When your
opinion's wanted, you give it. When you're spoke to, you speak. When
your opinion's not wanted and you're not spoke to, don't you give an
opinion and don't you speak. The world's undergone a nice alteration
since my time, certainly. My belief is that there an't any boys
left--that there isn't such a thing as a boy--that there's nothing now
between a male baby and a man--and that all the boys went out with his
blessed Majesty King George the Second.'

'That's a very true observation, always excepting the young princes,'
said the parish-clerk, who, as the representative of church and state in
that company, held himself bound to the nicest loyalty. 'If it's godly
and righteous for boys, being of the ages of