Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/758

752 stranger outside seemed deaf like Jeb; 'peared he was gettin' riled with being kept a-waitin', for soon Jeb could hear him stampin' and cussin'. 'Wal,' remarks Jeb, with a sigh, 'if I must get up to open, I must; but I guess, my friend, I'll make you see stars – some,' and he reaches out his hand to his slip of hickory, – when all of a suddint the shingles cave in, and Judge Mason's bull is in Jeb Peabody's weskit. Jeb was a candid man, and as he said arterwards in mentioning the fact – 'the way I shouted and slipped out o' the winder like a greased streak o' lightnin', afore the crittur was done prancin' around, was a caution to iled snakes.' And that was you, stranger, as you hollered and made tracks; and as for me, like the judge's bull, I guess I was too fur taken aback to apologise."

No one seemed greatly to appreciate the American's apologue or apology, which, considering there was but an ounce or two of the pure metal to some tons of quartz, was not much to be wondered at. But Winstanley felt more in charity towards him than before, since he saw that the transatlantic gentleman was well disposed to monopolise the talk, and that for himself he might play the part of listener. During dinner and afterwards, the voluble American sought to beguile the time with a fund of anecdote, of aphorism, and sage and moral reflection. Nevertheless, he did not have it all his own way by any means. The minister and the sheep-farmer had many subjects more or less in common – mammon, home-missions, markets, the clip of wool, the outrecuidance of the crofters, and the oppression of the landowners. As for the skipper, he seldom opened his mouth, except to stow away the very solid victuals, or swallow whisky-and-water. On the whole, Winstanley, not foreseeing what was to befall on the morrow, deemed him the most agreeable member of the party.

The supper, which came off at nine, was more successful than the dinner. After devouring everything indigestible, from cold corned-beef to crabs and Welsh rabbit, the society settled down to steady drinking. The American, to do him justice, having taken a "cocktail or two" by way of digestive, stuck thenceforward to aerated water. But he talked nine to the dozen, as he chewed plugs of golden Virginia indefatigably, in deference to the scruples of his new English friend, who had strongly protested against smoking. Not that Mr Winstanley disliked a cigar, but he objected to suffocation by rancid nicotine.

The minister, the sheep-farmer, and the skipper met on common ground, or rather on common spirits-and-water, over a bowl of punch that was brewed by the reverend gentleman, after the soundest traditions of the fathers of the Church.

"The stuff you brew at the preachings," observed the hillman, with a solemn wink, "or when you're seeking to come over the heritors for an augmentation, or an 'eke' to the manse." And worthy Dr M'Tavish, knowing well what his friend meant, fully met his expectations. Winstanley, who sat sipping some weak brandy-and-water, soon sought a refuge on the deck. But a mist that was very much of a drizzle was settling down thickly, and Willis was almost immediately at his elbow, like a warning conscience. For Willis was attached to his master, and detested the duty of acting as sick-nurse to an aggravating patient.

"Excuse me, sir, but this mist