96 THE DINNER. 



landlord, who was to have a guinea a-piece 

 for every ticket that was sold, whether peo- 

 ple came or not. The company all got toge- 

 ther in a large room, and chatted away till 

 the soup and fish were on table; when in 

 they came, and no trouble about seats, for 

 every gentleman's name was on a piece of 

 paper, and put on his plate. An old gene- 

 ral, who lived just by, was in the chair, 

 with a lot of medals like crown-pieces on 

 his breast, which was padded o.ut like a 

 pouter pigeon's, and told of the wars he'd 

 been in. The colonel he'd been in the 

 militia was on his right, and a clergyman 

 on his left, who, long before the noise of 

 seating the company was over, said grace; 

 but with so little in it like being thankful, 

 that I thought if it had been a charity- din- 

 ner, and the poor people hadn't' said thank 

 ye better than that, it ought to have been 

 taken away again. The waiters knew their 

 business, and almost before people were in 

 their seats off came the covers ; and there 

 was as pretty a buzz heard all over the room 

 as when a hive of bees think of swarming. 

 Eating and drinking' s pretty much the same 

 with all sorts ; and as the dinner went on, 



