nd has a good dry skittle-ground. If any man has got anything to say
again Jem Groves, let him say it TO Jem Groves, and Jem Groves can
accommodate him with a customer on any terms from four pound a side to
forty.

With these words, the speaker tapped himself on the waistcoat to
intimate that he was the Jem Groves so highly eulogized; sparred
scientifically at a counterfeit Jem Groves, who was sparring at society
in general from a black frame over the chimney-piece; and, applying a
half-emptied glass of spirits and water to his lips, drank Jem Groves's
health.

The night being warm, there was a large screen drawn across the room,
for a barrier against the heat of the fire. It seemed as if somebody
on the other side of this screen had been insinuating doubts of Mr
Groves's prowess, and had thereby given rise to these egotistical
expressions, for Mr Groves wound up his defiance by giving a loud knock
upon it with his knuckles and pausing for a reply from the other side.

'There an't many men,' said Mr Groves, no answer being returned, 'who
would ventur' to cross Jem Groves under his own roof. There's only one
man, I know, that has nerve enough for that, and that man's not a
hundred mile from here neither. But he's worth a dozen men, and I let
him say of me whatever he likes in consequence--he knows that.'

In return for this complimentary address, a very gruff hoarse voice
bade Mr Groves 'hold his noise and light a candle.' And the same voice
remarked that the same gentleman 'needn't waste his breath in brag, for
most people knew pretty well what sort of stuff he was made of.'

'Nell, they're--they're playing cards,' whispered the old man, suddenly
interested. 'Don't you hear them?'

'Look sharp with that candle,' said the voice; 'it's as much as I can
do to see the pips on the cards as it is; and get this shutter closed
as quick as you can, will you? Your beer will be the worse for
to-night's thunder I expect.--Game! Seven-and-sixpence to me, old
Isaac. Hand over.'

'Do you hear, Nell, do you hear them?' whispered the old man again,
with increased earnestness, as the money chinked upon the table.

'I haven't seen such a storm as this,' said a sharp cracked voice of
most disagreeable quality, when a tremendous peal of thunder had died
away, 'since the night when old Luke Withers won thirteen times running
on the red. We all said he had the Devil's luck and his own, and as it
was the kind of night for th