So with billiards, brandy, and
''baccy,'--''baccy,' brandy, and billiards, varied with an occasional
stroll about the grounds, the non-sporting inmates of Nonsuch House
beguiled the time, much to Mr. Sponge's disgust, whose soul was on fire and
eager for the fray. The reader's perhaps being the same, we will skip
Christmas and pass on to New Year's Day.
CHAPTER LXII
A FAMILY BREAKFAST
'Twere almost superfluous to say that NEW YEAR'S DAY is always a
great holiday. It is a day on which custom commands people to be happy and
idle, whether they have the means of being happy and idle or not. It is a
day for which happiness and idleness are 'booked,' and parties are planned
and arranged long beforehand. Some go to the town, some to the country;
some take rail; some take steam; some take greyhounds; some take gigs;
while others take guns and pop at all the little dicky-birds that come in
their way. The rural population generally incline to a hunt. They are not
very particular as to style, so long as there are a certain number of
hounds, and some men in scarlet, to blow their horns, halloo, and crack
their whips.
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