Tennis for my sport, and battle for my earnest! And you, Master, so dep
and considerate as you would seem, you have that within you makes
the blood boil faster than suits your present humour of moralising on
political truths. You are one of those wise men who see everything with
great composure till their blood is up, and then--woe to any one who
should put them in mind of their own prudential maxims!" "Perhaps," said
Ravenswood, "you read me more rightly than I can myself. But to think
justly will certainly go some length in helping me to act so. But hark!
I hear Caleb tolling the dinner-bell."
"Which he always does with the more sonorous grace in proportion to the
meagreness of the cheer which he has provided," said Bucklaw; "as if
that infernal clang and jangle, which will one day bring the belfry
down the cliff, could convert a starved hen into a fat capon, and a
blade-bone of mutton into a haunch of venison."
"I wish we may be so well off as your worst conjectures surmise,
Bucklaw, from the extreme solemnity and ceremony with which Caleb seems
to place on the table that solitary covered dish.
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