ull sure that he could get on better with
him than he could against him.

It was pleasant to see "My Grand" as he sat in his big arm-chair,
with his beer before him, and his long pipe in his mouth. A benign
smile was ever on his face, and yet he showed himself plainly
conscious that authority lived in his slightest word, and that he had
but to nod to be obeyed. That pipe was constant in his hand, and was
the weapon with which he signified his approbation of the speakers.
When any great orator would arise and address him as Most Worthy
Grand, he would lay his pipe for an instant on the table, and,
crossing his hands on his ample waistcoat, would bow serenely to the
Goose on his legs. Then, not allowing the spark to be extinguished
on his tobacco, he would resume the clay, and spread out over his
head and shoulders a long soft cloud of odorous smoke. But when any
upstart so addressed him,--any Goose not entitled by character to
use the sonorous phrase,--he would still retain his pipe, and simply
wink his eye. It was said that this distinction quite equalled the
difference between big type and little. Perhaps the qualification
which was most valued among The Geese, and most specially valued by
The Worthy Grand, was a knowledge of the Forms of the Room, as it was
called. These rules or formulas, which had probably been gradually
invented for the complication of things which had once been too
simple, were so numerous that no Goose could remember them all who
was not very constant in his attention, and endowed with an accurate
memory. And in this respect they were no doubt useful;--that when
young and unskilled Geese tried to monopolize the attention of the
Room, they would be constantly checked and snubbed, and at last
subdued and silenced, by some reference to a forgotten form. No Goose
could hope to get through a lengthy speech without such interruption
till he had made the Forms of the Room a long and painful study.

On the evening in question,--that same evening on which Robinson
had endeavoured to tear out the tongue of Brisket,--the Geese were
assembled before eight o'clock. A motion that had been made elsewhere
for the repeal of the paper duties was to be discussed. It was known
that the minds of many Geese were violently set against a measure
which they presumed to be most deleterious to the country; but old
Pan, under the rigorous instigation of Robinson, had given in his
adhesion, and was prepared to vote for the