Lofty ambition means high hopes
A good man is hard to find
One pun is where Fortunato reveals that he is a member of the Freemasons and Montresor says that he too is a "mason." It is a pun because he does not mean a "Freemason"; he means a mason, a craftsman who does brickwork, the kind Montresor plans to perform on Fortunato to seal him in the catacombs forever.
To turn a verb into past tense usually have "ed" at the end
ex: she was laughing
past tense: she laughed
future: she will laugh
