"The Fire Eaters."

Like "The Foxes," a recollection by Uncle Silas of a battle with a parson and the forces of religion ("'Unbuggin' popery! 'Unbuggin' money-mekking game").

When Silas and his rowdy friends are challenged by a young parson, they attend church "sitting in the front pew...like a row of innocent owls," but in the midst of the "celebration of the Jubilee of our dear Queen" they burn an effigy of the parson, along with most of his furniture and clerical outfits. Questioned by his nephew as to whether this wasn't excessively harsh treatment, Silas is disgusted: "If you never liked somebody you 'umbuggin' well said so. You let 'em know... I don't know what the 'nation's coming over everybody nowadays. Everybody's stopped enjoyin' theirselves. Everybody's gittin' too 'umbuggin' soft by half." Closing the second Silas collection, for the first time offering liquor to his nephew, he says "It's about time you had a mouthful o'wine...'Git the bottle down."

Published in:

• The Sunday Dispatch (November 18, 1951)
• Sugar for the Horse (1957)
• The Complete My Uncle Silas Stories (Bloomsbury ebook, 2016)