| Now when his too apprehensive nerves were frightened by bugbears in his lonely room he could be off to the howff and escape them. |
| Last winter, however, it was simply a weak need for companionship that drew him to the howff. |
| Joe had sneaked to the urn, then hid his filled tea-can under his overalls as he made his way back to the howff. |
| The company had not long left the howff, as Blane's public-house was called, when the trumpets and kettle-drums sounded. |
| The howff seemed full and frequented as if possessed of all its old celebrity. |
| So now, every night, he saw the cosy companions in their howff, and shivered at his own isolation. |
