RUSTY JACK. 19 



meat was being raised, and we attempted in vain to readjust 

 it. It continued to rise, and I tried to disconnect the chain by 

 which it was turned, and which was now drawing it up the 

 chimney ; I could not, and still it rose. I clung to it and 

 tried to stop it, and hallooed for assistance. In rushed the 

 landlady, three maids, and a man-servant, and I yielded the 

 spit to them ; but the power was too strong for them their 

 united weight could not long detain it ; up it rose rose rose, 

 till the prettiest maid stood first on tiptoe, and then began to 

 scream ; then the landlady, disengaging the meat from it, and 

 dropping it hastily on a plate, fell back exhausted on one of 

 the oak benches and laughed oh ! ha, ha ! oh ! ha, ha ! ha, 

 ha ! ho, ho ! ha, ha, ha ! how the woman did laugh ! As 

 soon as she recovered, she sent the man and maids up to the 

 machinery, being too much out of breath to go herself; and 

 in a few minutes the chain, which had fouled on the rusty 

 crank at the chimney top, was unwound and the spit lowered 

 to its place, the joint put on and set to turning again, all 

 right. 



While we were eating our dinner, five young men la 

 bourers came in for theirs ; most of them ate nothing but 

 bread and cheese, but some had thin slices of bacon cut from 

 the flitch nearest the fire, which they themselves toasted with 

 a fork and ate with the bread they had brought in their 

 pockets, as soon as it was warmed through. All drank two 

 pints of beer, and, after dining, smoked, except one, who took 

 hot rum-and-water. 



It appeared that while three of them preferred to spend 

 their money for beer rather than bacon, none of them chose 

 bacon at the expense of beer. The man who took rum drank 

 two glasses of it, and the others two or more pints of beer ; 

 but no one who took beer took any rum at all, nor did he 

 who took rum take any beer. A similar observation I have 



