Squire, who never
dreamt that his orders would be executed so literally and summarily as
to dispense with all formal appeal to himself.) As soon as Dr.
Riccabocca made that discovery, it occurred to him that all the wisdom
of all the schools that ever existed can't reconcile man or boy to a bad
position, the moment there is a fair opportunity of letting him out of
it. Accordingly, without more ado, he lifted up the creaking board, and
Lenny Fairfield darted forth like a bird from a cage--halted a moment as
if for breath, or in joy; and then, taking at once to his heels, fled,
fast as a hare to its form--fast to his mother's home.

Dr. Riccabocca dropped the yawning wood into its place, picked up his
handkerchief and restored it to his pocket; and then, with some
curiosity, began to examine the nature of that place of duresse which
had caused so much painful emotion to its rescued victim.

"Man is a very irrational animal at best," quoth the sage,
soliloquizing, "and is frightened by strange buggaboos! 'Tis but a piece
of wood! how little it really injures; and, after all, the holes are but
rests to the legs, and keep the feet out of the dirt. And this green
bank to sit upon--under the shade of the elm-tree--verily the position
must be more pleasant than otherwise! I've a great mind--" Here the
Doctor looked around, and, seeing the coast still clear, the oddest
notion imaginable took possession of him; yet not indeed a notion so
odd, considered philosophically--for all philosophy is based on
practical experiment--and Dr. Riccabocca felt an irresistible desire
practically to experience what manner of thing that punishment of the
stocks really was. "I can but try!--only for a moment," said he
apologetically to his own expostulating sense of dignity. "I have time
to do it, before any one comes." He lifted up the partition again; but
stocks are built on the true principle of English law, and don't easily
allow a man to criminate himself--it was hard to get into them without
the help of a friend. However, as we before noticed, obstacles only
whetted Dr. Riccabocca's invention. He looked round and saw a withered
bit of stick under the tree--this he inserted in the division of the
stocks, somewhat in the manner in which boys place a stick under a sieve
for the purpose of ensnaring sparrows: the fatal wood thus propped, Dr.
Riccabocca sat gravely down on the bank, and thrust his feet through the
apertures.

"Nothing in it!"