fat, rosy man, with an air of
self-importance. He set out from the court with the cock under his arm.
An excited crowd streamed after the policeman, who stalked on with no
little pomposity. When he reached the common, which lay between the
houses of the rival claimants, he stood still for a minute or two,
grasping the cock and looking judiciously from one side of the broken
land to the other.

The crowd eagerly commenced to give information.

"You're a bit nearer Bob O' Tims's than you are to Jimmy's!" cried one.

"Nay! Nay!" interposed another spectator, who was a partisan of Bob O'
Tims. "There's a corner to turn afore you get to Bob's. It's not fair,
not to make allowance for that."

"Stand back!" cried the policeman majestically--"Stand back, every man
of you. The critter will be too much put about to go anywhere if you
don't keep still tongues in your heads."

The officer still stood, with his legs wide apart, turning his head
slowly from side to side. Once he made a pace in the direction of Jimmy
Taylor's; then, changing his mind, he took a couple of steps toward Bob
O' Tims's. Finally, he decided that he had fixed upon the exact locality
commanded by the law, and with a magisterial air, he again waved back
the crowd and deposited the cock upon the ground in front of him.

Everybody held their breath. The first thing that the cock did was to
shake himself until he resembled nothing so much as a living mop. Then
he began to smooth his feathers down again. Then he stretched his neck,
flapped his wings and crowed. Finally, with a blink of his bright eyes,
which almost appeared like a wink to the hushed and expectant crowd, he
made two solemn steps with his slender legs in the direction of Jimmy
Taylor's cottage.

"He's going to Jimmy's!" exclaimed the crowd with one voice.

"Can't you all be quiet for a moment or two," interposed the policeman,
indignantly. "I tell you, if you don't keep still, you'll upset the
critter's mind, and make the magistrates' decision just good for
nothing."

The crowd appeared ashamed and relapsed once more into silence.

The policeman stood erect and tall, a few paces in front of them,
watching the cock with great solemnity. It was standing still now,
jerking its neck a little. Then it looked round, and, retracing its
paces, began stepping slowly off in the opposite direction.

"It's going to Bob's!" cried the crowd.

But the cock was doing no such thing; it paused again, sc