He wishes me--whom he calls the best man in England--to give his son lessons in boxing, which he says he considers a fine manly English art, and a great defence against Popery--notwithstanding that only a month ago, when he considered me a down pin, he was in the habit of railing against it as a blackguard practice, and against me as a blackguard for following it; so I am going to commence with young hopeful to-morrow." "I really cannot help congratulating you on your good fortune," said I.
"That a'n't all," said the landlord.

"This very morning the folks of our parish made me churchwarden, which they would no more have done a month ago, when they considered me a down pin, than they--" "Mercy upon us!" said I, "if fortune pours in upon you in this manner, who knows but that within a year they may make you a justice of the peace ?" "Who knows, indeed!" said the landlord.

"Well, I will prove myself worthy of my good luck by showing the grateful mind--not to those who would be kind to me now, but to those who were, when the days were rather gloomy.

My customers shall have abundance of rough language, but I'll knock any one down who says anything against the clergyman who lent me the fifty pounds, or against the Church of England, of which he is parson and I am churchwarden.

I am also ready to do anything in reason for him who paid me for the ale he drank, when I shouldn't have had the heart to collar him for the money had he refused to pay; who never jeered or flouted me like the rest of my customers when I was a down pin--and though he refused to fight cross _for_ me was never cross _with_ me, but listened to all I had to say, and gave me all kinds of good advice.