We been to the Docks, wine-tasting: Port--Sherry: Sherry--Port! and, ha! ha! 'what a lot of wine!' says farmer, never thinking how much he's taking on board.

'I guessed it was night,' says farmer, as we got into the air, and to see him go on blinking, and stumbling, and saying to me, 'You stand wine, brother Tony!' I'm blest if I ain't bottled laughter.

So, says I, 'come and see "The Holly Berries," brother William John; it's the best play in London, and a suitable winter piece.' 'Is there a rascal hanged in the piece ?' says he.

'Oh, yes!' I let him fancy there was, and he--ha! ha! old farmer's sticking to his seat, solemn as a judge, waiting for the gallows to come on the stage." A thought quickened Algernon's spirit.

It was a notorious secret among the young gentlemen who assisted in maintaining the prosperity of Boyne's Bank, that the old porter--the "Old Ant," as he was called--possessed money, and had no objection to put out small sums for a certain interest.