A glass of beer is good enough for Samuel Clegg.

A glass of beer and some bread and cheese, as the old saying is, is good enough for a king; but bread and cheese and water isn't fit for a beggar." All laughed obligingly; and the old man turned to a bulging pocket which had evidently been on his mind from his entrance.
"I've got a little present here from Esther," he said,--"Esther" being the aunt after whom Mike's Esther had been named,--bringing out a little newspaper parcel.

"But I must tell you from the beginning.
"Well, you know, Mary," he continued, "I was feeling rather low yesterday, and Esther said to me, 'Why not take a day off to-morrow, Samuel, and see Mary, it'll shake you up a bit, and I'll be bound she's right glad to see you ?' 'Why, lass!' I said, 'it's the very thing.

See if I don't go in the morning.' "So this morning," he continued, "she tidies me up--you know her way--and sends me off.

But before I started, she said, 'Here, Samuel, you must take this, with my love, to Mary.' I've kept it wrapped up in this drawer for thirty years, and only the other day our Mary Elizabeth said, 'Mother, you might give me that old jug.