Chap. XXYI. BREWING BEER. 545 



wife's ale, as so good that the "taste reaches right to the 

 back of the neck," or in proper native gourmand's phrase 

 declare the feast to be so recherchS that every step they take 

 homewards will cause their stomachs to say " tobu, tobu, tobu." 

 None but a churl would grudge them this, the enjoyment, 

 though a poor one, of their lives. Bless their hearts, let them 

 rejoice in the fruits of their labour ! We confess, however, that 

 we have never witnessed the plenty which their land yields, 

 without turning in imagination to the streets and lanes of our 

 cities, and lamenting that the squalid offspring of poverty 

 and sin has not more pleasant lines in this world, where there 

 is so much and to spare. 



2 if 



