166 THE ANGLER'S GUIDE. 



Bigings, " and I rule my kingdom with the 

 power of my tongue, and command or punish 

 who I please." 



" You're a devilish droll fellow/ ' was the 

 reply. 



" I'm not devilish," said he ; " those are 

 devilish who get drunk by swallowing liquid 

 fire. 



' Who spend their pelf to bouse all night, 

 And snore like pigs at morning light.' " 



" What !" said the fellow, " then you mean 

 to say I'm devilish?" 



" I did not say you was," said Rigings. 



" But you meant it, Sir," said he, opening 

 his eyes, rising in a towering passion, and 

 shaking his fist. 



But Rigings was not at all daunted, for, 

 lifting his mock cocked hat a little off his face, 

 throwing himself into a pompous attitude, and 

 making his countenance as terrific as possible, 

 he exclaimed, with his eyes sternly fixed on 

 him : 



" Thy guilty conscience tells thee plainly, thou 

 A drunkard art, and also, that thy throat, 

 In dead of night, will gulp the liquor down, 

 And therefore, when the trite remark was made, 

 It fitted, like thy nightcap to thy muddled brains. 



