Tongs, who had lost nearly all the powers of action, though retaining
not a few of his parts of speech, now came in fortunately to the aid of
the rather-discomfited pedler. Pouring forth a volley of oaths, in which
his more temperate brother-in-law was denounced as a mean-spirited
critter, who couldn't drink with his friend or fight with his enemy, he
made an ineffectual effort to grapple furiously with the offender, while
he more effectually arrested his endeavor to waken up his son. It is
well, perhaps, that his animal man lacked something of its accustomed
efficiency, and resolutely refused all co-operation with his mood; or,
it is more than probable, such was his wrath, that his more staid
brother-in-law would have been subjected to some few personal tests of
blow and buffet. The proceedings throughout suggested to the mind of the
pedler a mode of executing his design, by proposing a bumper all round,
with the view of healing the breach between the parties, and as a final
draught preparatory to breaking up.
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