CHAPTER XIII. 



FAREWELL FEAST OF THE ANGLING CLUB. 



LEISTER, OTTER, MAY-FLY, and SWIVELTOP. 



May. Pile high the faggots, Meg; give us an 

 ample, exhilarating flame an ox-roaster, prithee. 

 Ay ! that is the fashion on't ; put thy bellows into 

 its ear, and blow right lustily force a jolly heart 

 into the centre of these fir-logs. Thou art a good 

 girl, and pretty withal, and wilt lack neither mate 

 nor merriment. There is nought, my boys, equal 

 to a prime, sparkling fireside. ? Tis, next to his Bible, 

 the poor man's best comfort ; and merciless wretches 

 are they who refuse, as many do, the clearings of 

 their coppices to supply the hearths of those needy 

 gleaners, with whom God surrounds them in his 

 mysterious, but just distribution of wealth and 

 of poverty! Without this blessing, how rugged 

 and unsocial were we, kept all apart from those 

 kindly intercourses, which are formed and enlarged 



