'Come, Solomon, none of your preaching here so soon--you
know you're not up to the praying point yet, nor within four tumblers of
it. So, as you say yourself, wait for your gifts, my lad.'

"'Ah, Tom,' replied Solomon with a smile, 'alway's facetious--always
fond of a harmless and edifying jest.'

"'My name, sir,' added he, 'is M'Slime; I have the honor to be Law Agent
to the Castle Cumber property, and occasionally to transact business
with our friend M'Clutchy.'

"Here the waiter entered with a glass and tumbler, and Phil desired them
to shove me up the decanter. This, however, I declined, as not being yet
sufficiently accustomed to whiskey punch to be able to drink it without
indisposition. I begged, however, to be allowed to substitute a little
cold sherry and water in its stead.

"'I'm afeard, sir,' observed another strong-looking man, 'that you are
likely to prove a cool Orangeman on our hands. I never saw the man that
shied his tumbler good for much.'

"'Sir,' said Solomon, 'you need not feel surprised at the tone of voice
and familiarity in which these persons address you or me. They are, so
to speak, sturdy and independent men, who, to the natural boldness
of their character, add on such occasions as this, something of the
equality and license that are necessarily to be found in an Orange
Lodge. I am myself here, I trust, on different and higher principles.
Indeed it is from a purely religious motive that I come, as well as
to give them the benefit of a frail, but not, I would hope, altogether
unedifying example. Their language makes me often feel now much I stand
in need of grace, and how good it is sometimes for me to be tempted
within my strength. I also drink punch here, lest by declining it I
might get into too strong a feeling of pride, in probably possessing
greater gifts; and I need not say, sir, that a watchful Christian will
be slow to miss any opportunity of keeping himself humble. It is, then,
for this purpose that I sometimes, when among these men, make
myself even as one of them, and humble myself, always with an eye to
edification even to the fourth or fifth cup.'

"'But I trust, sir, that these Christian descents from your vantage
ground are generally rewarded.'

"'Without boasting, I trust I may say so. These little sacrifices of
mine are not without their own appropriate compensations. Indeed, it
is seldom that such stretches of duty on the right side, and for the
improvement of other