The design of the pedler was
considerably advanced by Tongs, who, once intoxicated himself, was not
slow in the endeavor to bring all around him under the same influence.
"Drink, Brooks--drink, old fellow," he exclaimed; "as you are a true
man, drink, and don't fight shy of the critter! Whiskey, my boy--old
Monongahely like this, I say--whiskey is wife and children--house and
horse--lands and niggers--liberty and [hiccup] plenty to live on! Don't
you see how I drive ahead, and don't care for the hind wheels? It's all
owing to whiskey! Grog, I say--Hark ye, Mr. Pedler--grog, I say, is the
wheels of life: it carries a man _for'ad_. Why don't men go _for'ad_ in
the world? What's the reason now? I'll tell you. They're afeared. Well,
now, who's afeared when he's got a broadside of whiskey in him?
Nobody--nobody's afeared but you--you, Ben Brooks, you're a d----d
crick--crick--you're always afeared of something, or nothing; for, after
all, whenever you're afeared of something, it turns out to be nothing!
All 'cause you don't drink like a man.
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