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* Horace, car. i od. vii
-=-


[74 ADVENTURES OF MR. VERDANT GREEN]

sing. But while he is mentally looking over his numerous stock of
songs, and selecting one for our amusement, I beg to fill up our
valuable time, by asking you to fill up a bumper to the health of our
esteemed host Smalls (~vociferous cheers~) - a man whose private
worth is only to be equalled by the purity of his milk-punch and the
excellence of his weeds (~hear hear~). Bumpers, gentlemen, and no
heel-taps! and though I am sorry to interfere with Mr. Fosbrooke's
private enjoyments, yet I must beg to suggest to him that he has been
so much engaged in drowning his personal cares in the bowl over which
he is so skilfully presiding, that my glass has been allowed to
sparkle on the board empty and useless." And as Charles Larkyns held
out his glass towards Mr. Fosbrooke and the punch-bowl, he trolled
out, in a rich, manly voice, old Cowley's anacreontic:

"Fill up the bowl then, fill it high!
Fill all the glasses there! For why
Should every creature drink but I?
Why, man of morals, tell me why?"

By the time that the "man of morals" had ladled out for the company,
and that Mr. Smalls' health had been drunk and responded to amid
uproarious applause, Charles Larkyns' friendly diversion in our