 and summoning a small boy who had
been watching his proceedings, poured forth the few remaining drops as a
libation on the gravel, and bade him carry the empty vessel to the bar with his
compliments, and above all things to lead a sober and temperate life, and
abstain from all intoxicating and exciting liquors. Having giving him this piece
of moral advice for his trouble (which, as he wisely observed, was far better
than halfpence), the Perpetual Grand Master of the Glorious Apollos thrust his
hands into his pockets and sauntered away: still pondering as he went.
 

                                 Chapter XXXIX

All that day, though he waited for Mr. Abel until evening, Kit kept clear of his
mother's house, determined not to anticipate the pleasures of the morrow, but to
let them come in their full rush of delight; for to-morrow was the great and
long-looked-for epoch in his life - to-morrow was the end of his first quarter -
the day of receiving, for the first time, one fourth part of his annual income
of Six Pounds in one vast sum of Thirty Shillings - to-morrow was to be a
half-holiday devoted to a whirl of entertainments, and little Jacob was to know
what oysters meant, and to see a play.
    All manner of incidents combined in favour of the occasion: not only had Mr.
and Mrs. Garland forewarned him that they intended to make no deduction for his
outfit from the great amount, but to pay it him unbroken in all its gigantic
grandeur; not only had the unknown gentleman increased the stock by the sum of
five shillings, which was a perfect god-send and in itself a fortune; not only
had these things come to pass which nobody could have calculated upon, or in
their wildest dreams have hoped; but it was Barbara's quarter too - Barbara's
quarter, that very day - and Barbara had a half-holiday as well as Kit, and
Barbara's mother was going to make one of the party, and to take tea with Kit's
mother, and cultivate her acquaintance.
    To be sure Kit looked out of his window very early that morning to see which
way the clouds were flying, and to be sure Barbara would have been at hers too,
if she had not sat up so late over-night, starching and ironing small pieces of
muslin, and crimping them into frills, and sewing them on to other pieces to
form magnificent wholes for next day's wear. But they were both up very early
for all that, and had small
