“Do you mean to say that the law won’t make that infernal scoundrel Johnson suffer for letting his dog eat me up?”
“I think not, if you state the case properly.”
“It won’t, hey?” exclaimed Mr. Briggs, hysterically. “Oh, very well, very well! I s’pose if that dog had chewed me all up it’d ’ve been all the same to this constitutional republic. But hang me if I don’t have satisfaction. I’ll kill Johnson, poison his dog, and emigrate to some country where the rights of citizens are protected!”
Then Mr. Briggs got on his crutches and hobbled out. He is still a citizen, and will vote at the next election.
MY PARROT.
Let your face express contempt on the word “pshaw,” and make the gesture in [Figure 24 of Typical Gestures]. Drawl out the word “yawned” in the third verse and give a comical wink in the fourth verse. Prolong the sound on “pshaw” in the last line.
I had a parrot once, an ugly bird,
With the most wicked eye I ever saw,