O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree! Much pleasure thou can'st give me

Let us take the scathe and the scorn candidly home to us;—and try to prepare for doing better.

There's an old legal aphorism that goes, If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table.

to do a rub-up