This happy event -- supposing it to be such -- could only have occurred at an unpremeditated moment . We will not follow our friend across the threshold . He has left us much food for thought , a portion of which shall lend its wisdom to a moral and be shaped into a figure . Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system , and systems to one another and to a whole , that by stepping aside for a moment a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place for ever . Like Wakefield , he may become , as it were , the outcast of the universe . A RILL FROM THE TOWN-PUMP . -LRB- SCENE , the corner of two principal streets , -LSB- 1 -RSB- the TOWN-PUMP talking through its nose . -RRB- Noon by the north clock ! Noon by the east ! High noon , too , by these hot sunbeams , which full , scarcely aslope , upon my head and almost make the water bubble and smoke in the trough under my nose . Truly , we public characters have a tough time of it ! And among all the town-officers chosen at March meeting , where is he that sustains for a single year the burden of such manifold duties as are imposed in perpetuity upon the town-pump ? The title of `` town-treasurer '' is rightfully mine , as guardian of the best treasure that the town has . The overseers of the poor ought to make me their chairman , since I provide bountifully for the pauper without expense to him that pays taxes . I am at the head of the fire department and one of the physicians to the board of health . As a keeper of the peace all water-drinkers will confess me equal to the constable . I perform some of the duties of the town-clerk by promulgating public notices when they are posted on my front . To speak within bounds , I am the chief person of the municipality , and exhibit , moreover , an admirable pattern to my brother-officers by the cool , steady , upright , downright and impartial discharge of my business and the constancy with which I stand to my post . Summer or winter , nobody seeks me in vain , for all day long I am seen at the busiest corner , just above the market , stretching out my arms to rich and poor alike , and at night I hold a lantern over my head both to show where I am and keep people out of the gutters . At this sultry noontide I am cupbearer to the parched populace , for whose benefit an iron goblet is chained to my waist .
Like a dramseller on the mall at muster-day , I cry aloud to all and sundry in my plainest accents and XXXXX the very tiptop of my voice .
Amid FROM Like across at into of to under upon