ich ought not to be passed over with
indifference.

I saw in my dream that a great change had taken place in the home of the
Priggs. The furniture had undergone a metamorphosis almost so striking
that I thought Mr. Prigg must be a wizard. The gentle reader knows all
about Cinderella; but here was a transformation more surprising. I saw
that one of Mr. Bumpkin's pigs had been turned into a very pretty
walnut-wood whatnot, and stood in the drawing-room, and on it stood
several of the ducks and geese that used to swim in the pond of Southwood
farm. They were not ducks and geese now, but pretty silent ornaments.
An old rough-looking stack of oats had been turned into a very nice
Turkey carpet for the dining-room. Poor old Jack the donkey had been
changed into a musical box that stood on a little table made out of a
calf. One day Mr. Bumpkin called to see how his case was going on, and
by mistake got into this room among his cows and pigs; but not one of
them did the farmer know, and when the maid invited him to sit down he
was afraid of spoiling something.

Now summonses at Chambers, and appeals, and demurrers, are not at all bad
conjuring wands, if you only know how to use them. Two clever men like
Prigg and Locust, not only surprise the profession, but alarm the public,
since no one knows what will take place next, and Justice herself is
startled from her propriety. Let no clamorous law reformer say that
interrogatories or any other multitudinous proceedings at Judge's
Chambers are useless. It is astonishing how many changes you can ring
upon them with a little ingenuity, and a very little scrupulosity. Mr.
Prigg turned two sides of bacon into an Indian vase, and performed many
other feats truly astonishing to persons who look on as mere spectators,
and wonder how it is done. Wave your magic wand, good Prigg, and you
shall see a hayrick turn into a chestnut mare; and a four-wheeled waggon
into a Victoria.

But the greatest change he had effected was in Mr. Bumpkin himself, who
loved to hear his wife read the interrogatories and answers. The almanac
was nothing to this. He had no idea law was so interesting. I dare say
there were two guiding influences working within him, in addition to the
many influences working without; one being that inherent British pluck,
which once aroused, "doesn't care, sir, if it costs me a thousand pound,
I'll have it out wi' un;" the other was the delicious thought that all
his