"Ah, you blackguard, that will do--now, Mr. Forrester--now, Col.
Blundell--don't be slow--no backing out, boys--hey, for a long drink to
the stock in trade of our friend the pedler."
So spoke Pippin; a wild huzza attested the good humor which the
proposition excited. Potation rapidly followed potation, and the jug
again demanded replenishing. The company was well drilled in this
species of exercise; and each individual claiming caste in such circle,
must be well prepared, like the knight-challenger of old tourney, to
defy all comers. In the cases of Pippin and Blundell, successive
draughts, after the attainment of a certain degree of mental and animal
stolidity, seemed rather to fortify than to weaken their defences, and
to fit them more perfectly for a due prolongation of the warfare. The
appetite, too, like most appetites, growing from what it fed on,
ventured few idle expostulations; glass after glass, in rapid
succession, fully attested the claim of these two champions to the
renown which such exercises in that section of the world had won for
them respectively.
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