ffirmative, and Lawyer Ketchum the
negative. Lawyer Tippit's principle was in _medio pessimus ibis_,
while Lawyer Ketchum held _qui facit per alien facit per se_. They,
therefore, couldn't agree, they were so wide apart, you see. So they
separated without either giving up, though I think Lawyer Tippit had a
little the best of the argument."

"Lawyer Tippit knows a thing or two," said the fisherman, in a low
tone.

Here Squire Miller handed to Mr. Jenkins twelve and a half cents, for
the four glasses of Jamaica he had drank, a portion of which some way
or other seemed to have got into his last speech, and took his leave.

He had hardly left the store when who should come in but Constable
Basset, bearing in his hand a black staff, "having a head with the
arms of the State thereon," the badge of his office, as provided by
law, and which he was required to carry "upon proper occasions." Some
such occasion had, in the judgment of the constable, evidently arisen,
else it would not now be forthcoming.

He was a bullet-headed, carroty-haired little fellow, with a snub nose
and eyes so diminutive and deeply sunken, that but for the sparks of
light they emitted, they would have been undiscernible. The expression
of his face was like that of a wiry terrier, being derived partly from
his occupation, which, in his opinion, required him to be as vigilant
in spying out offenders as the aforesaid peppery animal, in scenting
vermin, and being partly the gift of nature. But though the person of
Basset was small, such was not his opinion of himself. That was in an
inverse ratio to his size, and at once the source of his highest joys,
and, sooth to say, of an occasional mortification. But the former
greatly preponderated, and, on the whole, it was a pleasure to
a benevolent mind to look at him, if for no other reason than to
consider how much enjoyment there may be in ignorance.

As soon as Gladding set his eyes on the constable, he hailed him:

"Here, Basset," he cried, "what are you going to do this morning with
that are stick?"

The constable did not much relish hearing the badge of an office which
he esteemed one of the most important in the State thus lightly spoken
of and degraded to a common stick; he, therefore, replied somewhat
shortly--

"I guess, Mr. Gladding, you don't see the head of my staff, do ye?"

"Don't I?" said Gladding. "I know old
Authority-by-the-State-of-Connecticut a mile off, without seeing his
head, I