time by no such pleasing object as on the former occasion. He was dumbfoundered; a sparrow facing an owl could hardly be in a greater state of nervousness and discomfiture: for down in the well of the Court, a place where he had never once cast his eyes till now, with a broad grin on his coarse features, and a look of malignant triumph, sat the fiendlike Snooks! His mouth was wide open, and Bumpkin found himself looking down into it as though it had been a saw-pit. By his side sat Locust taking notes of the cross-examination.
“What are you looking at, Mr. Bumpkin?” inquired the learned counsel.
Mr. Bumpkin started.
“What are you looking at?”
“I wur lookin’ doun thic there hole in thic feller’s head,” answered Bumpkin.
Such a roar of laughter followed this speech as is seldom heard even in a breach of promise case, where the most touching pathos often causes the greatest amusement to the audience.
“What a lark!” said Harry.
“As good as a play,” responded Dick.
“I be sorry for the old chap,” said Joe; “they be givin’ it to un pooty stiff.”
“Now attend,” said the counsel, “and never mind the hole. Did a young woman with a baby come up?”