ried to his
case, muttering as he went: 'Considdeble vell, them ere expressions,
perticcler for a man as doesn't swar. So I's to gouge out all their
eyes, eh? and d-n all their gizzards! Vell! this here's the chap as is
just able for to do it.' The fact is that although Bob was but twelve
years old and four feet high, he was equal to any amount of fight, in a
small way.

The exigency here described is by no means of rare occurrence in
printing-offices; and I cannot tell how to account for it, but the fact
is indisputable, that when the exigency does occur, it almost always
happens that x is adopted as a substitute for the letter deficient. The
true reason, perhaps, is that x is rather the most superabundant letter
in the cases, or at least was so in the old times--long enough to render
the substitution in question an habitual thing with printers. As
for Bob, he would have considered it heretical to employ any other
character, in a case of this kind, than the x to which he had been
accustomed.

'I shell have to x this ere paragrab,' said he to himself, as he read it
over in astonishment, 'but it's jest about the awfulest o-wy paragrab I
ever did see': so x it he did, unflinchingly, and to press it went x-ed.

Next morning the population of Nopolis were taken all aback by reading
in 'The Tea-Pot,' the following extraordinary leader:

'Sx hx, Jxhn! hxw nxw? Txld yxu sx, yxu knxw. Dxn't crxw, anxther time,
befxre yxu're xut xf the wxxds! Dxes yxur mxther knxw yxu're xut? Xh,
nx, nx!--sx gx hxme at xnce, nxw, Jxhn, tx yxur xdixus xld wxxds xf
Cxncxrd! Gx hxme tx yxur wxxds, xld xwl,--gx! Yxu wxn't? Xh, pxh, pxh,
Jxhn, dxn't dx sx! Yxu've gxt tx gx, yxu knxw, sx gx at xnce, and dxn't
gx slxw; fxr nxbxdy xwns yxu here, yxu knxw. Xh, Jxhn, Jxhn, Jxhn, if
yxu dxn't gx yxu're nx hxmx--nx! Yxu're xnly a fxwl, an xwl; a cxw, a
sxw; a dxll, a pxll; a pxxr xld gxxd-fxr-nxthing-tx-nxbxdy, lxg, dxg,
hxg, xr frxg, cxme xut xf a Cxncxrd bxg. Cxxl, nxw--cxxl! Dx be cxxl,
yxu fxxl! Nxne xf yxur crxwing, xld cxck! Dxn't frxwn sx--dxn't! Dxn't
hxllx, nxr hxwl, nxr grxwl, nxr bxw-wxw-wxw! Gxxd Lxrd, Jxhn, hxw yxu dx
lxxk! Txld yxu sx, yxu knxw,--but stxp rxlling yxur gxxse xf an xld pxll
abxut sx, and gx and drxwn yxur sxrrxws in a bxwl!'

The uproar occasioned by this mystical and cabalistical article, is not
to be conceived. The first definite idea entertained by the populace
was, that some diabolical treason lay concealed in the hiero