“God bless me,” cried the other, with well-feigned surprise, “is there no wine on the table?” and ringing the bell furiously, scolded poor Tim so naturally that the confederate was almost thrown out.  “Well! you numskull, why don’t you make off with you, and bring something for the gentlemen to drink?” Tim stood fast till interrogated a second time, and then replied with perfect gravity that “there wasn’t another drop of wine in the house.”  Upon this the master got up in a rage, and brushing past the servant, declared his intention of searching the cellar himself.  He was absent some time, and we had just prevailed on our hesitating companion to sit down again, when, as if there had been some electrical communication between his chair and the handle of the door, it opened, and in walked our generous entertainer, exulting in his success, crowing like chanticleer, and bearing in each hand a couple of bottles, clicking against each other; while Tim, with a degree of impudence equalled only by that of his master, substituted clean glasses, of a still more capacious swallow than the first.  To these were added two pair of candles which towered high above the jolly crew, and promised to last till another dawn should look in upon our revels.  By this time the twilight had almost entirely ebbed away, and was succeeded by that cheerful, aurora-kind of brilliancy in the sky, which points out the place of the sun during the whole of his summer night’s journey in those high latitudes.  Politics dropped, for the joyous juice of the grape soon melted us all into one mind; and a hundred topics of more pleasing interest were started, in which the strangers could join without fear of any angry discussion.  The mirth and animation of the company rose very pleasantly as each fresh bottle found its way by some magical process to the table.  But it became rather difficult to tell who were the listeners amongst us, or to say who was guest and who landlord, for the party seemed like a circle of brothers, all equally at home.

This went on for an indefinite length of time, but I should be the veriest conjuror on earth to say how long.  Through the hazy atmosphere of my recollection of that jolly evening, I remember that about eleven o’clock, more or less, our host was enchanted almost beyond the power of words by seeing his wine so much relished, and tickled also with the success of his joke, in making his suspicious guest drink just as much wine as he thought fit to impose.  On this occasion, however, he inverted the proverb, and reckoned without his guest; for, by one imprudent remark, he had well-nigh torn the laurels from his brow.