GRAYLING. 107 



asked to explain how the consumption of whisky, 

 which costs him money, could possibly be a source of 

 revenue to him, " I will tell you," says he. "Man 

 must have whisky, must he not ? Very well. I pay 

 ijs. 6d. a gallon for mine, and you cannot get similar 

 stuff for less than 2is. or more. There is a difference 

 of twenty per cent, gained by me by buying direct 

 from the distillery. Isn't it as plain as a pike- 

 staff that I make a profit by every glass I drink ?" 

 We were at the time partaking of his old over- 

 proof "Glenlivet," and we found it good and com- 

 mendable. 



As moderate men, we partook of this insinuating 

 drink quite sparingly and hot, with a half-inch square 

 of the thin outer rind of a lemon, which gives it that 

 pleasant aroma. We were obliged to admit that his 

 logic was unassailable on the assumption that his 

 major premise was sound, viz., that every man must 

 take whisky ! A proposition capable of being 

 questioned. 



At breakfast our Professor is great on the question 

 of sugar. "Here," says he, "you go and import a 

 lot of bounty-fed beetroot rubbish which has no 

 sweetening power in it, and leave our colonies and 

 sugar merchants to starve. Go into any shop you 

 like, and ask for West Indian cane-grown sugar, and 

 you'll find none from one end of the town to the 

 other they don't keep it. No, they will try and 

 palm off on you that nasty gritty German stuff, be- 

 cause it can be bought for less money, and they make 

 a fraction more profit ; and yet we call ourselves 

 patriotic. No ! thank you, none of that turnipy stuff 



