addressing Selwyn in a stage whisper.

"Tom, Tom, the piper's son,
Stole a pig,
And away did run;
The pig was eat,
And Tom was beat,
And Tom went roaring
Down the street,"

sang the prisoner, in a sweet little voice.

"Your 'ludship,' singing is contempt of court; you will please fine the
prisoner at the bar," said the counsel, regardless of the fact that the
prisoner was supposed to be his client.

"Silence, both of you!" cried the judge, with impartial justice,
rapping his desk sharply with a brass paper-cutter. "Now, Mr.
Barrister, state the case." Then, in an aside, "Wasn't that well said?"

"The prisoner has stolen a pig, your 'ludship,'" said the counsel. "He
admits it, but as the animal has been eaten--"

"And the prisoner has been beaten," put in the incorrigible Selwyn.

"And the prisoner is a stranger in a strange land," continued Rex,
ignoring the irrelevant remark, "a most noble and learned
American--ahem!--what sentence, your 'ludship,' shall be passed upon
him?"

"Hum, hum!" said his "ludship," resting his cheek on his hand
meditatively, trying to assume the expression which he had seen
sometimes on papa's face when he and Selwyn were under consideration
for some childish offence.

"The court waits, your 'ludship,'" remarked the counsel, throwing a
paper ball at the judge.

"Silence!" again shouted the judge, rapping vigorously. "The sentence
is this: the prisoner shall stand on his head for two seconds, then
recite a piece of poetry, and then--in the course of a week--leave the
country."

"Your 'ludship' will please sign the sentence and we will submit it to
the jury," suggested the learned counsel, who, as you will perceive,
had rather peculiar ideas about court formula.

"What shall I sign?" asked his "ludship."

"Anything," said Rex. "Those papers all look like old things--quick!
I think I hear Jarvis coming. Sign the one in your hand. Just write
Geoffrey Addison Barrington. It's only for fun, you know."

He caught up a dingy-looking document, opened it, and, thrusting the
pen which was in his "ludship's" hand into the ink, he and the prisoner
at the bar crowded up to see the signature which Charlie wrote as he
had been told to do, in a distinct schoolboy's hand. He had barely
crossed the "t" and dotted the last "i" when they heard a step, and
scurrying into the cupboard, they saw Jarvis come in, take something
from the desk, and go out without a glance in t