Andy obeyed; and his finger was chopped between the two brazen plates. Andy roared, the bystanders laughed, and the trumpeter triumphed in his wit. Sometimes he would come behind an unsuspecting boor, and give, close to his ear, a discordant bray from his trumpet, like the note of a jackass, which made _him_ jump, and the crowd roar with merriment; or, perhaps, when the clarionet or the fife was engaged in giving the people a tune, he would drown either, or both of them, in a wild yell of his instrument. As they could not make reprisals upon him, he had his own way in playing whatever he liked for his audience; and in doing so indulged in all the airs of a great artist--pulling out one crook from another--blowing through them softly, and shaking the moisture from them in a tasty style--arranging them with a fastidious nicety--then, after the final adjustment of the mouth-piece, lipping the instrument with an affectation exquisitely grotesque; but before he began he always asked for another drink. "It's not for myself," he would say, "but for the thrumpet, the crayther; the divil a note she can blow without a dhrop." Then, taking a mug of drink, he would present it to the bell of the trumpet, and afterwards transfer it to his own lips, always bowing to the instrument first, and saying, "Your health, ma'am!" This was another piece of delight to the mob, and Andy thought him the funniest fellow he ever met, though he _did_ chop his finger. "Faix, sir, an' it is dhry work, I'm sure, playing the thing." "Dhry!" said the trumpeter, "'pon my ruffles and tuckers--and that's a cambric oath--it's worse nor lime-burnin', so it is--it makes a man's throat as parched as pays." "Who dar says pays?" cried the drummer. "Howld your prate!" said the trumpeter, elegantly, and silenced all reply by playing a tune. As soon as it was ended, he turned to Andy and asked for a cork. Andy gave it to him. The man of jokes affected to put it into the trumpet. "What's that for, sir?" asked Andy. "To bottle up the music," said the trumpeter--"sure all the music would run about the place if I didn't do that."