'And how far is the Maypole from here?'
'About a mile'--John was going to add that it was the easiest mile in
all the world, when the third rider, who had hitherto kept a little in
the rear, suddenly interposed:
'And have you one excellent bed, landlord? Hem! A bed that you can
recommend--a bed that you are sure is well aired--a bed that has been
slept in by some perfectly respectable and unexceptionable person?'
'We don't take in no tagrag and bobtail at our house, sir,' answered
John. 'And as to the bed itself--'
'Say, as to three beds,' interposed the gentleman who had spoken before;
'for we shall want three if we stay, though my friend only speaks of
one.'
'No, no, my lord; you are too good, you are too kind; but your life is
of far too much importance to the nation in these portentous times, to
be placed upon a level with one so useless and so poor as mine. A great
cause, my lord, a mighty cause, depends on you. You are its leader and
its champion, its advanced guard and its van. It is the cause of our
altars and our homes, our country and our faith. Let ME sleep on a
chair--the carpet--anywhere. No one will repine if I take cold or fever.
Let John Grueby pass the night beneath the open sky--no one will
repine for HIM.
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