Pipeclay.—He can't well help minding his ancestors when he daily and hourly feels the effects of their indiscretions.
O'Sheevo.—But d'ye mean to say that if all his ancestors were fast men, the whole of their diseases would be accumulated on his shoulders?
Pipeclay.—Not exactly. These things wear out in time, or are got rid of by crossing the breed; the nearer in time a man is to his rollicking ancestor, the more plainly he shows the hereditary taint.
O'Sheevo.—Then if he's his contemporary he's as bad as himself. I don't think, though, that my father showed the want of the Ballyswig estate a bit more than I do. Bad luck to my old aunt who forgot her successors though her ancestors remembered her.
Oldham.—Buzza that jug, Lovell, and touch the bell for another; these discussions make one thirsty.
O'Sheevo.—Thirst is nothing here to what it is in the tropics. By Jove! how I used to suffer at Jamaica.
Lovell.—Nature is said to have there provided for the craving by a bountiful supply of water. The name Jamaica signifies, I believe, the "Isle of Springs." You had excellent water there, Major, had you not?
O'Sheevo.—I always understood the water was very good, but I can't exactly remember that I ever tasted it. Nature is an affectionate mother, but there's no nourishment in her milk, so I put myself out to nurse upon sangree and portercup.
Pipeclay.—Nasty, unwholesome stuff; there's a yellow fever in every glass of it.
O'Sheevo.—It may be one of the ingredients; but that's no matter, if it's well mixed, because the other things correct it.