"Who are you a-talking to, young feller? I was just pointing out that the name Noakes, on the principle of the association of ideas—but let’s see what it says.  ’Our worthy mayor, Alderman Noakes, accompanied by the bailiff and reeves, will on December 21, for the four hundred and fifty-second time in the history of this ancient borough, perform the quaint ceremony of anointing the British Stone.’  The worthy mayor must be a hoary old Methuselah if he’s performed the ceremony four hundred and fifty-one times: he might be the great-grandfather ten times removed of that old rascal we knew.  And if he’s even so distantly related as that, he’s probably a rascal too, and deserves to be kept waiting."