Rarely had he thanks for it, never halfpence, but not unfrequently blows and abuse.

For the last he cared nothing; the former, owing to his great agility, seldom visited him with any directness.

A certain reporter of humorous scandal, after his third tumbler, would occasionally give a graphic description of what, coming from a supper-party, he once saw about two o'clock in the morning.

In the great street of the city, he overhauled a huge galleon, which proved, he declared, to be the provost himself, not exactly water-logged, and yet not very buoyant, but carrying a good deal of sail.

He might possibly have escaped very particular notice, he said, but for the assiduous attendance upon him of an absurd little cock-boat, in the person of wee Gibbie--the two reminding him right ludicrously of the story of the Spanish Armada.