David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Chapter 11 Page 23

for a glass of ale or porter, to moisten what I had had for dinner, they were afraid to give it me.

I remember one hot evening I went into the bar of a public-house, and said to the landlord: ‘What is your best — your very best — ale a glass?’ For it was a special occasion. I don’t know what. It may have been my birthday.

‘Twopence-halfpenny,’ says the landlord, ‘is the price of the Genuine Stunning ale.’

‘Then,’ says I, producing the money, ‘just draw me a glass of the Genuine Stunning, if you please, with a good head to it.’

The landlord looked at me in return over the bar, from head to foot,