'Welcome!' chimed in the Brethren; and they raised their tankards to their lips and emptied them at a draught.
'We do not call one another by our titles,' said the Lord Privy Gander.
'Nor by our names,' added the Chancellor of the Jingle.
'Nor by our surnames,' pursued the Home Doggerel.
'But by our nicknames,' observed the Foreign Doggerel.
'By the mystic syllables repeated,' said the First Lord of the Seesaw.
Hereupon a curious ceremony took place. Beginning with the Lord Privy Gander, and so on in regular order to the First Lord of the Seesaw, each brother in rapid succession spoke his own nickname, with the following result.
'Ruba!' said the Lord Privy Gander.
'Dubb!' said the Chancellor of the Jingle.
'Dubsix!' said the Home Doggerel.