FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



then come into fashion. The consumption of 

 liquor was not a little stimulated by the idiotic 

 custom, now happily a thing of the past, by which 

 everybody was expected to take a glass of wine 

 with everybody else. Notwithstanding all this, 

 it was very rare to find anyone on these occasions 

 notably the worse for what they had taken There 

 was a good deal of harmless joviality, but nothing 

 more marked than what used to be described as 

 " market-merry " ; a condition of mind and body 

 which was not regarded as a reproach to any one, 

 but rather as a proof of his capacity to carry good 

 liquor without allowing it to master him. 



Two farmers, well known in my parts, started 

 on their homeward way after such a festivity as 

 I have described. They were friends and neigh- 

 bours, and came to the entertainment under a 

 mutual arrangement, by which one lent the gig 

 for the journey and the other the horse. The 

 liquor in this case, as it sometimes does, engendered 

 a " touchiness " foreign to both of them at 

 ordinary times, and, on the homeward way, a 

 warm dispute arose with regard to a very trivial 

 matter. At last, one of them losing all patience, 

 said to the other, "I won't put up with you a 

 minute longer ! It's my gig, and you get out of 

 it." " All right," was the reply, and down he 

 got and at once began to unharness the horse. 

 " What are you at ? " said the one in the gig, 

 who, in the darkness of a country road couldn't 

 very well see what was going on. " Only taking 

 the horse out ! You see, the gig's yours, but the 

 horse is mine." Having released the horse from 

 the shafts, he wheeled the gig to one side of the 



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