“He’s on his seventy-seventh now,” corrected Richard.
“H-m!” Phœbe eyed him. “It’s not me you’re after makin’ eyes at, is it?”
“I decline to commit myself,” said Jawn solemnly. “I appeal to the legal decency of the jury that a man can’t be compelled to bear testimony against himself.”
The jury shifted about uneasily. The jury was obviously disturbed. Like many unhappy persons on this earth, Walter understood everything in the situation but the humour of it, and so missed its very salt.
“The jury will please mind its own business,” the Court admonished; “I merely remind the prisoner that if he tries any gallivantin’ with this Court he’ll find himself muzzled and manacled in holy matrimony before he can think up a rhyme for ‘God-help-me.’ This Court finds the single state very depressing, and is gettin’ entirely too old to miss a chance. All of which reminds me, Jawn, that you must have begun early. Have you any early records?”
Richard laughed appreciatively. He knew what was coming.
“Oh, a very good record,” said Jawn. “It is the only one about whose ranking I feel positively sure. I call it ‘My Firth,’ for I was entirely too young to speak plainly. The official account goes this way,
“To myself on the day of my birth
I lisped, ‘What a charming young nurth!’
And then when she faced me