continues plying at her needle.

The day set apart for the trial before a jury of "special bail" arrives.
The rosy-faced commissioner is in his seat, a very good-natured jury is
impanelled, and the feeble old man is again brought into court. Maria
saunters, thoughtful, and anxious for the result, at the outer door.
Peter Crimpton rises, addresses the jury at great length, sets forth the
evident intention of fraud on the part of the applicant, and the
enormity of the crime. He will now prove his objections by competent
witnesses. The proceedings being in accordance with what Mr. Snivel
facetiously terms the strict rules of special pleading, the old man's
lips are closed. Several very respectable witnesses are called, and aver
they saw the old Antiquary with a gold watch mounted, at a recent date;
witnesses quite as dependable aver they have known him for many years,
but never mounted with anything so extravagant as a gold watch. So much
for the validity of testimony! It is very clear that the very
respectable witnesses have confounded some one else with the prisoner.

The Antiquary openly confesses to the possession of a pin, and the
curious skull (neither of which are valuable beyond their associations),
but declares it more an oversight than an intention that they were left
out of the schedule. For the virtue of the schedule, Mr. Crimpton is
singularly scrupulous; nor does it soften his aspersions that the old
man offers to resign them for the benefit of the State. Mr. Crimpton
gives his case to the jury, expressing his belief that a verdict will be
rendered in his favor. A verdict of guilty (for so it is rendered in our
courts) will indeed give the prisoner to him for an indefinite period.
In truth, the only drawback is that the plaintiff will be required to
pay thirty cents a day to Mr. Hardscrabble, who will starve him rightly
soundly.

The jury, very much to Mr. Crimpton's chagrin, remain seated, and
declare the prisoner not guilty. Was this sufficient--all the law
demanded? No. Although justice might have been satisfied, the law had
other ends to serve, and in the hands of an instrument like Crimpton,
could be turned to uses delicacy forbids our transcribing here. The old
man's persecutors were not satisfied; the verdict of the jury was with
him, but the law gave his enemies power to retain him six months longer.
Mr. Crimpton demands a writ of appeal to the sessions. The Commissioner
has no alternative, notwith