But I did laugh to kill; it was the best I ever did see, was that
spree--Ha! ha! ha!"
And, as he finished, he burst out into his first horse laugh, in which I
chorused him most heartily, having in truth been in convulsions, between
the queerness of his lingo, and the absurdly grotesque attitudes into
which he threw himself, in imitating the persons concerning whom his
story ran. After this, jest succeeded jest! and story, story! 'till, in
good truth, the glass circling the while with most portentous speed, I
began to feel bees in my head, and till in truth no one, I believe, of
the party, was entirely collected in his thoughts, except Tom Draw, whom
it is as impossible for liquor to affect, as it would be for brandy to
make a hogshead drunk, and who stalked off to bed with an air of solemn
gravity that would have well become a Spanish grandee of the olden time,
telling us, as he left the room, that we were all as drunk as thunder,
and that we should be stinkin in our beds till noon to-morrow.
A prediction, by the way, which he took right good care to defeat in his
own person; for in less than five hours after we retired, which was
about the first of the small hours, he rushed into my room, and finding
that the awful noises which he made, had no effect in waking me, dragged
me bodily out of bed, and clapping my wet sponge in my face, walked off,
as he said, to fetch the bitters, which were to make me as fine as silk
upon the instant.
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