"I can drink that toast, and think as I please!" laughed Parkington.
"'Zactly! 'Zactly! that's just it—you have the idea—shink as you please—the point isn't to shink, it's to take a drink.—Sir Edward, your good health!"
Parkington drank, then put aside his glass, and sat down. Mr. Jennings, who was reading the Gazette, looked up.
"Here is a fellow who must have been as mellow as our friend Cole," he said. "Listen:
"'A hat was taken off a gentleman's head in the street before the Subscriber's House in Upper Marlborough, on Friday night, the 7th ultimo. Whoever will stop the said hat, if offered for sale, and discover the thief, so that he may be brought to justice, shall have a reward of two pistoles paid by
B. Brookes.'"
"Go 'long, Jennings!" said Dr. Upton Scott, (who having been the surgeon on Wolfe's staff, at the battle of Quebec, had come to Annapolis, married a daughter of John Ross, the Proprietor's Deputy, and built one of the most attractive houses in town—on the banks of the Spa, adjoining the residences of Carroll and Tasker). "You are trading on our credulity."
"I swear it is here—just as I read it."
"Well, even Cole has a long way to go, before he gets as drunk as Brookes' friend. But, cheer up, old man, you are getting there!" said the Doctor, clapping Cole on the shoulder, and spilling a pint of Madeira out of his hands.
"I'm getting there!" Cole agreed, looking up with a silly smile, "but I'll get there fas'her if you spilled les'h, Scott.