“No, no,” said mine Uncle! “Take back your Cup, Josh., you must not be without it. Pay me, as I know you will, as soon as you are able. I’ll not have that piece of wedge go to sale anyhow.”
Josh returned to the Half Moon with both money and cup; discharged the duty of friendship, and the pawnbroker lost nothing by his confidence.
We must preserve the name of the generous pawnbroker (strange coupling of epithets!), it was Folkard, and the assistant was the youth who, in after years, was the well-known Renton Nicholson, of newspaper and “Town” celebrity, from whose lips we have often heard this little episode of “John Bull and his Uncle.”
“Mine host in the market, a prime jolly fellow,
As rough and as ready as here and there one;
In his lush-crib when seated, good-humoured and mellow,
Looks very like Bacchus astride of his tun.
But more to advantage, with Davy beside him,
This John Bull, the picture of frolic appears,
Discoursing on battles, which those who have tried him