r," said Bumpkin, "and I bean't asheamed of
un."

"Silence!" cried the Don. "You don't remember me, I s'pose?"

"Wall, not rightly, I doan't."

"I dissay you recollect Don O'Rapley, the demon bowler of Bridgewater?"

"I've 'eered tell on 'im," said Bumpkin.

"I'm that man!" said the Don, "and this is my nephew, Mr. Snigger. He
tells me you've got a case comin' on?"

"I be."

"Just step outside," said the Don, "we mustn't talk 'ere." So they went
into Westminster Hall, and the good-natured O'Rapley asked if Mr. Bumpkin
would like to look round, and if so he said he would be happy to show
him, for he was very pleased to see anyone from the scene of his youthful
exploits.

"Thankee, sir--thankee, sir," answered Bumpkin, delighted to find another
"native" among "furriners." "And this 'ere genleman be thy nevvy, sir?"

"He is, and very proud of him I am; he's my sister's son."

"Seems a nice quiet boy," said Mr. Bumpkin. "Now how old might he be?"

"Old," said Mr. O'Rapley, looking deedily at the floor and pressing his
hand to his forehead, "why he'll be seventeen come March."

"Hem! his 'ed be a good deal older nor thic: his 'ed be forty--it's my
way o' thinkin'."

The Don laughed.

"Yes, he has his head screwed on the right way, I think."

"Why that air lad," said Bumpkin, "might make a judge."

O'Rapley laughed and shook his head.

"In old times," said he, "he might ha' made a Lord Chancellor; a man as
was clever had a chance then, but lor' blesh you, Mr. Bumpkin, now-a-days
it's so very different; the raw material is that plentiful in the law
that you can find fifty men as would make rattlin good Lord Chancellors
for one as you could pick out to make a rattlin' good bowler. But come,
we'll have a look round."

So round they looked again, and Mr. Bumpkin was duly impressed with the
array of wigs and the number of books and the solemnity of the judges and
the arguments of counsel, not one word of which was intelligible to him.
Mr. O'Rapley explained everything and pointed out where a judge and jury
tried a case, and then took him into another court where two judges tried
the judge and jury, and very often set them both aside and gave new
trials and altered verdicts and judgments or refused to do so
notwithstanding the elaborate arguments of the most eloquent and
long-winded of learned counsel.

Then the Don asked if Mr. Bumpkin would like to see the Chancery
Judges--to which Mr. Bumpkin answer