Page:Sylvester Sound the Somnambulist (1844).djvu/100

 Jones held his plate, and had a small piece more. It might have weighed a quarter of a pound; but as he felt that while eating bread and cheese, he couldn't make any very great mistake, quantity was not at all an object. He ate it; and then had another small piece, and ate that, and enjoyed it pretty well; and could have eaten a small piece more, but wouldn't.

"Now, then, suppose we have a clearance, Mr. Jones," said the reverend gentleman, blandly. "As you are, I believe, the younger man, I'll leave the job to you."

Jones then put all the plates and dishes upon the tray, and cleverly removed it to the sideboard; and when he had placed the various bottles upon the table, the reverend gentleman invited him again to a chair.

"Are you fond of punch, Mr. Jones?" he inquired.

"Yes, I'm very fond of punch. I never tasted none; but I know I'm very fond of it, cos everybody as I ever knowed says it's nice!"

"Then we'll have some!" rejoined the reverend gentleman—"We'll have some, my friend; and I shall be able to say with safety, Mr. Jones, that you never tasted anything like it in your life."

Of punch the reverend gentleman was a great connoisseur. He never drank any but that which he made himself; and, as a maker, he was prepared to back himself against any man in Europe. Such being the case, there were, as a matter of course, great preparations. The lemons were cut in a singular style, the water was measured, the liquors were measured, the sugar was measured, and the jugs were placed in a very peculiar position on the hob; where they remained closely covered with napkins, until Jones thought his reverend friend had forgotten they were there. But this was a mistake altogether. When the time prescribed had duly expired, the reverend gentleman drew off the napkins, and taking a jug in each hand, poured the beverage from jug to jug, backwards and forwards, for a quarter of an hour, during the whole of which time Jones's mouth was wide open. The jugs were then placed on the hob again, and there they remained another quarter of an hour, when they were again taken off, and again filled and emptied, until the reverend gentleman filled a glass, and having three times sipped it, smacked his lips.

"That's the way, my friend, to make punch!" he exclaimed. "Now, Mr. Jones, try that."

Jones accepted a glass, and having drank it, boldly pronounced it to be nice. He liked it much; he admired its flavour, and thought that it was almost worth while being a gentleman, since gentlemen drank such rare stuff as that.

"What do you think of it?" inquired his reverend friend. "Will it do?"

"Capital!" replied Jones. "Out and out! But I didn't know what it was till it was gone."

"Then take another glass, Mr. Jones."

And Jones took another glass; but his reverend friend helped himself to the sixth, before he asked him to have a third. Te then said