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?"

"To the best o' my b'leef."

"Don't say to the best of your belief; did she or not?"

"He can only speak to the best of his belief," said the Judge.

("There's the round square," whispered O'Rapley.)

"Did she come up then to the best of your belief?"

"Yes."

"And--did--she--accuse--you--to the best of your belief of assaulting
her?"

"I be a married man," answered the witness. (Great laughter.)

"Yes, we know all about you; we'll see who you are presently. Did she
accuse you, and did you run away?"

"I runned arter thic feller."

"No, no; did she accuse you?"

"She might."

The learned counsel then sat down with the quickest motion imaginable,
and then the policeman gave his evidence as to taking the man into
custody; and produced the huge watch. Mr. Bumpkin was recalled and asked
how long he had had it, and where he bought it; the only answers to which
were that he had had it five years, and bought it of a man in the market;
did not know who he was or where he came from; all which answers looked
very black against Mr. Bumpkin. Then the policeman was asked to answer
this question--yes or no. "Did he know the prisoner?" He said "No."

Mr. Nimble said to the jury, "Here was a man dressing himself up as an
old man from the country (laughter) prowling about the streets of London
in company with an associate whose name he dared not mention, and who
probably was well-known to the police; here was this countryman actually
accused of committing an assault in the public streets on a young woman
with a baby in her arms: he runs away as hard as his legs will carry him
and meets a man who is actually wearing the watch that this Bumpkin or
Pumpkin charges him with stealing. He, the learned counsel, would call
w