206 COFFEE AL FRESCO. 



the grape appeared too cold a fluid for such mercurial souls 

 and a general call for a more potent liquid was given am 

 obeyed. 



Now came "the sweet hour i' the night/' and old Can 

 might, if he pleased, have "hanged himself in his owi 

 garters." The Priest, whose voice must once have beer 

 remarkably fine, and who certainly never impaired it mucl 

 by " hallooing psalms/' sang national melodies, or joined the 

 Colonel and my cousin in glees and catches, which, as 

 Wamba says, were not " ill-sung/' " Fast and furious" the 

 mirth proceeded, while, " every pause between/' clouds o: 

 tobacco rose like a mist-wreath, and overspread the company 

 with a canopy of vapour. 



For my own part, every prudential resolution vanished wit! 

 the first catch ; and it was not till a certain unsteadiness o; 

 vision discovered that I had reached that felicitous state wher 

 no twelve honest men, upon oath, would certify my sobriety, 

 that I mustered courage to retreat. I felt that, had I remainec 

 much longer, I was likely to become hors de combat ; and : 

 lighting a cigar, left the cabin to breathe the fresh air, whicl 

 long since had been superseded in the banqueting-room by ar 

 atmosphere of genuine cannastre. 



It was a mild, calm, dark night, and such a one feels 

 delicious in the hills. Two or three solitary stars were feeblj 

 twinkling in the sky, though, were the truth told, probably 

 there was but one. I took the pathway leading to the 

 river, and sat down upon the banks, to " blow my cloud' 

 in solitude. I was not, however, permitted to muse alone ; 

 my kinsman immediately joined me, and settling himsel: 

 upon one of the masses of turf, which the floods tear froir 

 the banks of the stream, and leave, when their violence 

 subsides, upon the verge of the river, replenished his 

 meerschaum. 



"How refreshing/' he said, "to exchange that mephitic 

 air within, for this mild but bracing night-breeze ! I savi 

 you pass the glass, and I desired John to bring us out some 

 coffee. It is a queer place, too, for a Mocha fancier to indulge 

 in ; but this is the charm that binds me to the mountains. IE 

 life, locality is everything ; it is not the what one does, it is the 

 where. Venison at a city feast is an every-day concern ; and 

 the best haunch in England would not ha^ e the gusto of the 

 red deer's that hangs from the roof within. Common comfort, 



