( Dickens The Pickwick papers ) At length Mr. Winkle began to dream that he was at a club, and that themembers being very refractory, the chairman was obliged to hammer thetable a good deal to preserve order; then he had a confused notion of anauction room where there were no bidders, and the auctioneer was buyingeverything in; and ultimately he began to think it just within thebounds of possibility that somebody might be knocking at the streetdoor.
With this, the speaker snatched that article of dress from Mr.Pickwick's head, and fixed it in a twinkling on that of the drunken man,who, firmly impressed with the belief that he was delighting a numerousassembly, continued to hammer away at the comic song in the mostmelancholy strains imaginable.
( Dickens The Pickwick papers ) The knocker made a more energetic reply than words could have yielded,for it continued to hammer with surprising force and noise, without amoment's cessation.