for he had a prognostication.

The door was open, and the company of jolly yeomen, tradesmen, farmers,
and the like, had become intent on observing all the ceremonies of
precedence: not one would broaden his back on the other; and there was
bowing, and scraping, and grimacing, till Farmer Broadmead was hailed
aloud, and the old boy stepped forth, and was summarily pushed through:
the chairman calling from the rear, 'Hulloa! no names to-night!' to
which was answered lustily: 'All right, Mr. Tom!' and the speaker was
reproved with, 'There you go! at it again!' and out and up they hustled.

The chairman said quietly to Evan, as they were ascending the stairs:
'We don't have names to-night; may as well drop titles.' Which presented
no peculiar meaning to Evan's mind, and he smiled the usual smile.

To Raikes, at the door of the supper-room, the chairman repeated the
same; and with extreme affability and alacrity of abnegation, the other
rejoined, 'Oh, certainly!'

No wonder that he rubbed his hands with more delight than aristocrats
and people with gentlemanly connections are in the habit of betraying
at the prospect of refection, for the release from bread and cheese was
rendered overpoweringly glorious, in his eyes, by the bountiful contrast
exhibited on the board before him.

CHAPTER XII. IN WHICH ALE IS SHOWN TO HAVE ONE QUALITY OF WINE

To proclaim that yon ribs of beef and yonder ruddy Britons have met, is
to furnish matter for an hour's comfortable meditation.

Digest the fact. Here the Fates have put their seal to something Nature
clearly devised. It was intended; and it has come to pass. A thing has
come to pass which we feel to be right! The machinery of the world,
then, is not entirely dislocated: there is harmony, on one point, among
the mysterious powers who have to do with us.

Apart from its eloquent and consoling philosophy, the picture is
pleasant. You see two rows of shoulders resolutely set for action:
heads in divers degrees of proximity to their plates: eyes variously
twinkling, or hypocritically composed: chaps in vigorous exercise. Now
leans a fellow right back with his whole face to the firmament: Ale is
his adoration. He sighs not till he sees the end of the mug. Now from
one a laugh is sprung; but, as if too early tapped, he turns off the
cock, and primes himself anew. Occupied by their own requirements, these
Britons allow that their neighbours have rights: no cursing at waste of
tim