ed, it will be accepted
by the ignorant as _criticism_. Nothing goes down with shallow minds
like criticism, and the severest criticism is generally based on envy and
jealousy.

Mr. Prigg, then, was clever, respectable, good, and nice, remarkably
potent qualities for success in this world.

So I saw in my dream that Mr. Bumpkin, whose feelings were duly aroused,
turned his eye upon Honest Lawyer Prigg, and resolved to consult him upon
the grievous outrage to which he had been subjected at the hands of the
cunning Snooks: and without more ado he resolved to call on that very
worthy and extremely nice gentleman.

CHAPTER IV.

On the extreme simplicity of going to law.

With his right leg resting on his left, with his two thumbs nicely
adjusted, and with the four points of his right fingers in delicate
contact with the fingers of his left hand, sat Honest Lawyer Prigg,
listening to the tale of unutterable woe, as recounted by Farmer Bumpkin.

Sometimes the good man's eyes looked keenly at the farmer, and sometimes
they scanned vacantly the ceiling, where a wandering fly seemed, like Mr.
Bumpkin, in search of consolation or redress. Sometimes Mr. Prigg nodded
his respectable head and shoulders in token of his comprehension of Mr.
Bumpkin's lucid statement: then he nodded two or three times in
succession, implying that the Court was with Mr. Bumpkin, and
occasionally he would utter with a soft soothing voice,

"Quite so!"

When he said "quite so," he parted his fingers, and reunited them with
great precision; then he softly tapped them together, closed his eyes,
and seemed lost in profound meditation.

Here Mr. Bumpkin paused and stared. Was Mr. Prigg listening?

"Pray proceed," said the lawyer, "I quite follow you;--never mind about
what anybody else had offered you for the pig--the question really is
whether you actually sold this pig to Snooks or not--whether the bargain
was complete or inchoate."

Mr. Bumpkin stared again. "I beant much of a scollard, sir," he
observed; "but I'll take my oath I never sold un t'pig."

"That is the question," remarked the lawyer. "You say you did not?
Quite so; had this Joe of yours any authority to receive money on your
behalf?"

"Devil a bit," answered Bumpkin.

"Excuse me," said Mr. Prigg, "I have to put these questions: it is
necessary that I should understand where we are: of course, if you did
not sell the pig, he had no right whatever to come and take