. He stands in an
attitude of midway. He speaks:
    »Gentlemen! 'Taint fust time you and I be met here, to salbrate this here
occasion. I say, not fust time, not by many a time, 'taint. Well, gentlemen, I
ain't much of a speaker, gentlemen, as you know. Howsever, here I be. No denyin'
that. I 'm on my legs. This here 's a strange enough world, and a man as 's a
gentleman, I say, we ought for to be glad when we got 'm. You know: I 'm coming
to it shortly. I ain't much of a speaker, and if you wants somethin' new, you
must ax elsewhere; but what I say is - dang it! here 's good health and long
life to Mr. Tom, up there!«
    »No names!« shouts the chairman, in the midst of a tremendous clatter.
    Farmer Broadmead moderately disengages his breadth from the seat. He humbly
axes pardon, which is accorded him with a blunt nod.
    Ale (to Beef what Eve was to Adam) circulates beneath a dazzling foam, fair
as the first woman.
    Mr. Tom (for the breach of the rules in mentioning whose name on a night
when identities are merged, we offer sincere apologies every other minute), Mr.
Tom is toasted. His parents, who selected that day sixty years ago, for his bow
to be made to the world, are alluded to with encomiums, and float down to
posterity on floods of liquid amber.
    But to see all the subtle merits that now begin to bud out from Mr. Tom, the
chairman and giver of the feast; and also rightly to appreciate the speeches, we
require to be enormously charged with Ale. Mr. Raikes did his best to keep his
head above the surface of the rapid flood. He conceived the chairman in
brilliant colours, and probably owing to the energy called for by his brain, the
legs of the young man failed him twice, as he tried them. Attention was
demanded. Mr. Raikes addressed the meeting.
    The three young gentlemen-cricketers had hitherto behaved with a certain
propriety. It did not offend Mr. Raikes to see them conduct themselves as if
they were at a play, and the rest of the company paid actors. He had likewise
taken a position, and had been the first to laugh aloud at a particular slip of
grammar; while his shrugs at the aspirates transposed and the pronunciation
prevalent, had
