The Warden

's Be

sive spectators. Finney, the attorney, had been among them, asking sly questions, and raising immoderate hopes, creating a party hostile to the warden, and establishing a corps in the enemy's camp, as he figuratively calls it to himself. Poor old men: whoever may be righted or wronged by this inquiry, they at any rate will assuredly be only injured: to them it can only be an unmixed evil

high-sounding name of justice: "Fiat justitia, ruat c?lum." These old men should, by rights, have one hundred pounds a year instead of one shilling and sixpence a day, and the warden shou

common law": such had been the important whisper made by Finney int

iled away, and was upheld in his orthodoxy by two adherents. Abel Handy, who was the leader of the aspirants after wealth, had, alas, a stronger following. No less than five of the twelve soon believed that his views were jus

ossible: Bunce would have cut his hand off sooner than have signed it. It was then suggested by Finney that if even eleven could be induced to sanction the document, the one obstinate recusant might have been represented as unfit to judge on such a question,-in fact, as being non compos mentis,-and the petition would have been taken as representing the feeling of the men. But this could not be done: Bunce's friends were as firm as himself, and as yet only six crosses adorned the document. It was the

g such additional signatures as Abel Handy, by his eloquence, co

i

X H

rk

y X

rk

w X S

a

clerk-like style. Handy had brought in the document, and spread it out on the small deal table, and was now standing by it persuasive and eager. Moody had followed with an inkhorn, care

petition were to be forwarded, now was the time,-so said Mr Finney; and great was the anxiety on the part

oody had muttered to his friend Handy, "by an old fool

you're ready now, Mr Finney says; here's the place, d'ye see;"-and he put his huge brown finger down on the dirty paper;-"name or mar

none of us so young; we can't stay

d easily have forgiven, but the allusion to the divine source of all his melo

urnt out, one cheek burnt through, and one arm nearly burnt off, and who, therefore, in regard to personal appearance, was not the most prepossessing of

not arouse him to do more than rub his poor old bleared eyes with the cuff of h

n Crumple was a meek, mild man, who had known better days; his means had been wasted by bad children, who had made his life wretched till he had been received into the ho

"I once had nigh to that myself, but it didn't do me no good." And he gave a

ndy; "and will have someone to keep

ldly wealth, and would have been satisfied, if left untem

g that parson to rob us all. Take the pen, man, and right yourself. Well," he added, seeing that Skulpit s

dy; "hungry beggars, as never thinks their belli

t you put out when you're once in;-no, not old Catgut, with Calves to help him!" I am sorry t

oubt about sich a bit of cheese as that passes me;-but some men is timorous;-some men is born wit

on's advice in that disputed case, when Joe Mutte

I'd be afraid of-I'd be afraid of not getting nothing from 'em but just what I coul

"Mr Harding's not so bad;-he did gi

iggs with scorn, opening awfull

ered Moody with a curs

day, when he owes me a hundred pounds a year; no, thank ye; that may do for you, but it won't fo

ndecision to his two friends. "Wha

ating of an old sheep, which was intended to express the a

ou old fool, you've been and smeared it all,-there,-that'll do for you;-that's as good as the best na

said Handy, tur

sartain," again argued Crumple. "Wel

id Skulpit: "please yours

dering, meaningless sign was made, betokening such sanct

like you under his thumb,-a man that always holds his head in the hospital as high as Bunce himsel

e little flourishes with it i

but just put your mark like the others;"-the cloud began to clear from Skulpit's brow;-"we

d Skulpit. "One name and the rest m

and stooping over the petition, the learned clerk m

at is, the nine of us; and as for old Bunce, and his cronies, they may-" But as he was hobbling

old Bunce do?" said the gr

arting; but he was stopped in the doo

," said he, "'tis plain to see that; and 't

nd do you do the same. It ain't nothing to you what I does;-an

ng his opponent, "if the truth must out, you've st

he were about to sink i

our own, we needn't ax leave of you first, Mr Bunce, big a man as you are; and as to

born. I knowed the mother that bore him, when she and I were little wee things, picking daisies together in the close yonder; and I've lived

aid Skulpit; "so you can,

. A hundred a year? Are the lot of you soft enough to think that if a hundred a year be to be given, it's the likes of you that will get it?"-and he pointed to Billy Gazy, Spriggs, and Crumple. "Did any of us ever do anything worth half the money? Was it to make gentlemen of us we were brought in here, when all the world turned against us

what's ourn by law; it don't matter what we expected. What

et was the better for law, or for a lawyer? Will Mr Finney ever be as good to you, Job, as that

, will he?" asked Handy; and laughing at the severity of his own wit, he and

human nature. Job Skulpit scratched his head;-Jonathan Crumple again remarked, that, "for sartain, sure a h