312 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



Before I could give vent to a burst of invective, which I 

 felt rising within me, another, and yet another, came un- 

 ceremoniously slipping down, and then a torrent of a sort 

 of licorish fluid, called porter, came gurgling and frothing 

 after. At this a horrible suspicion flashed across me. 

 For a moment the dreadful question rose in my mind, 

 whether these peculiar substances, salt and flabby, which 

 had so excited my awe and abhorrence, were the eyes of 

 some of the poor brewers employed in the well-known firm 

 of Nux, Vomica, and Co. This fearful idea seemed in a 

 manner to be corroborated by the brackish taste I before 

 alluded to, and which I naturally attributed to the flavour 

 of the poor fellows' tears. The powder, it is true, cast a 

 doubt as to the correctness of my surmises ; but with ex- 

 quisite imagination I looked upon this as some of that 

 dust blown back into the faces of the men, which their 

 master had endeavoured to throw into the eyes of the 

 public when they playfully affirmed that their beer is 

 genuine. Another cataract of black liquor, however, dis- 

 tracted my attention ; and when the money chinked upon 

 the counter, the name of this extraordinary little stranger 

 (which was not welcome) was pronounced for the first time 

 in my hearing, and the word Oj r ster\vas indelibly impressed 

 upon my memory for evermore. 



" Since that time I have had occasion to receive these 

 creatures with extreme courtesy under all forms and cir- 

 cumstances, scolloped, stewed, buttered, devilled, with 

 beards and without beards ; but to the young ingenuous 

 stomach like myself at this moment, the raw oyster, with 

 adjuncts of strong vinegar and black pepper, and washed 

 down with a semi-opaque fluid, will ever present features 

 for recollection to linger over, and offers another proof of 



