Three Courses and a Dessert: Comprising Three Sets of Tales, West Country, Irish, and Legal; and a MelangeClarke, William
General
Three Courses and a Dessert: Comprising Three Sets of Tales, West Country, Irish, and Legal; and a Melange
Clarke, William
Ireland -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Legal stories, English; West Country (England) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Caddy tried to compose himself to sleep again; but grew restless,
feverish, and very uncomfortable: he beat up his pillow, shook his bed,
smoothed his sheets, walked several times up and down the room, and then
lay down again;--determined, at least, to doze. But Morpheus had taken
leave of him; and Caddy, at last, resolved on dressing himself, going
down to the kitchen, and, as he had tobacco about him, to smoke a pipe,
if he could find one, clean or dirty. He attributed his want of rest to
not having indulged in his usual sedative luxury, before going to bed;
and very resolutely taxed himself with the commission of an egregious
folly, for having drank more than he ought. Anthony Mutch's horse, and
the Commissioners of the roads, he very copiously abused, while
dressing himself: the spectacles were, however, the grand objects of his
indignation; but, bad as they were, he conceived that it was necessary
to coax them into shape again, and mount them on his nose, previously
to attempting, what he deemed, the perilous descent, from his chamber,
which was on the third floor, to the kitchen below. Caddy, however,
was too well acquainted with the topography of the house, to incur much
danger: moreover, the moon beamed with such brilliancy, through the
glass dome that lighted the great circular staircase of Caddy Castle,
that a man, much more short-sighted than our hero, might have gone
safely from the top to the bottom, without the assistance of glasses.
In a hole in the kitchen chimney, Caddy found two or three short pipes;
he congratulated himself on the discovery, and immediately filled one
of them from his pouch. The Castle was now as quiet as the grave; and no
soul, but Caddy himself, seemed to be stirring. He felt rather surprised
to see the stone floor of the kitchen, for above a yard from the
chimney, covered with embers of expiring logs, while the hearth itself
was “dark as Erebus.” Caddy Cuddle, however, did not trouble himself
much about this circumstance: he had often seen the kitchen in a similar
condition, after a frolic, in Caddy Caddy's time; and very gravely
lighting his pipe, he deposited himself on a warm iron tripod,--which
had been standing on the hearth, probably, the whole evening,--in
preference to a cold oak chair. The kitchen was comfortable,
notwithstanding it was dark, (for the embers, as we have already stated,
were expiring, and Caddy was without a candle,) and he smoked the
pipe so much to his satisfaction, that he determined to enjoy another.
Kicking the bits of burning wood together, as he sat, in order to light
his tobacco, he, unintentionally, produced a little blaze, which proved
rather disastrous to him:--as he stooped to light the pipe, he heard
a noise, that attracted his attention; Caddy looked about, and, on the
spacious hearth, beheld something, that bore a rude similitude to a
human figure!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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