as lower down; while Major Monsoon, to
preserve the symmetry of the party, had protruded his head, surmounted by a
huge red nightcap, from the berth opposite, and held out his goblet to be
replenished from the punch-bowl.

"Welcome, thrice welcome, thou man of Galway!" cried out Power, as he
pointed to a seat, and pushed a wine-glass towards me. "Just in time, too,
to pronounce upon a new brewery. Taste that; a little more of the lemon you
would say, perhaps? Well, I agree with you. Rum and brandy, glenlivet
and guava jelly, limes, green tea, and a slight suspicion of preserved
ginger,--nothing else, upon honor,--and the most simple mixture for the
cure, the radical cure, of blue devils and debt I know of; eh, Doctor? You
advise it yourself, to be taken before bed-time; nothing inflammatory in
it, nothing pugnacious; a mere circulation of the better juices and more
genial spirits of the marly clay, without arousing any of the baser
passions; whiskey is the devil for that."

"I canna say that I dinna like whiskey toddy," said the doctor; "in the
cauld winter nights it's no sae bad."

"Ah, that's it," said Power; "there's the pull you Scotch have upon us poor
Patlanders,--cool, calculating, long-headed fellows, you only come up to
the mark after fifteen tumblers; whereas we hot-brained devils, with a
blood at 212 degrees of Fahrenheit and a high-pressure engine of good
spirits always ready for an explosion, we go clean mad when tipsy; not but
I am fully convinced that a mad Irishman is worth two sane people of any
other country under heaven."

"If you mean by that insin--insin--sinuation to imply any disrespect to the
English," stuttered out Sparks, "I am bound to say that I for one, and the
doctor, I am sure, for another--"

"Na, na," interrupted the doctor, "ye mauna coont upon me; I'm no disposed
to fetch ower our liquor."

"Then, Major Monsoon, I'm certain--"

"Are ye, faith?" said the major, with a grin; "blessed are they who expect
nothing,--of which number you are not,--for most decidedly you shall be
disappointed."

"Never mind, Sparks, take the whole fight to your own proper self, and
do battle like a man; and here I stand, ready at all arms to prove my
position,--that we drink better, sing better, court better, fight better,
and make better punch than every John Bull, from Berwick to the Land's
End."

Sparks, however, who seemed not exactly sure how far his antagonist was
disposed to quiz, relapsed in