THE DINNER. 99 



this ; and, bless me, how he went on prais- 

 ing the colonel, as he looked at him as if 

 he'd no more modesty than a monument, 

 and had never a drop of blood to come up 

 into his face in the way of a blush ! I won- 

 dered the colonel did not get up and tell 

 him he was but a poor simple bit of flesh 

 and blood, and that he'd forgot himself, and 

 wasn't in his pulpit praising his Maker ; and 

 so I said to the landlord. "But," says he, 

 " let him alone ; he knows what he's about ; 

 he knows the colonel likes it. "We've all a 

 weak spot in our noddles, and that's his; 

 and, you see, some little time back, an old 

 gentleman that had the living fall into his 

 gift handed it over to the colonel, for him 

 to give away as he liked, and he gave it to 

 him that's speaking." As soon as the par- 

 son had done, the colonel rose again just 

 to say a word or two ; but there was such a 

 noise such hurraing, stamping, and clap- 

 ping that it minded me of Herod ; and glad 

 I felt that I wasn't the colonel, for I should 

 have been mightily afraid of being, like him, 

 eaten of worms and dying ; for I'm sure 

 the company seemed as if they thought it 

 the voice of a god, and not of a man. 



