the amphibious little
reprobate? a brat that's neither fish, flesh, nor fowl, nor good
red-herring--that spent his pitiful existence in making mud pies in a
gutter, till I was kind enough to--"

"Run over him, and break his arm," added I.

"Exactly," continued Lawless, "and a famous thing it was for him too.
Just see the advantages to which it has led; look at the education I
have given him; he can ride to hounds better than many grooms twice his
age, and bring you a second horse, in a long run, just at the nick of
time when you want it, as fresh, with that featherweight on its back, as
if it had only just come out of the stable; he can drive any animal
that don't pull too strong for him, as well as I can myself; he can
brew milk-punch better than a College Don, and drink it like an
undergraduate; he can use his fists as handily as--Ben Caunt, or the
Master of T----y, and polish off a boy a head taller than himself in ten
minutes, so that his nearest ~440~~ relations would not recognise him;
and he won five pounds last year in a Derby sweepstakes, besides taking
the long odds with a pork-butcher, and walking into the piggycide to the
tune of thirty shillings. No," continued Lawless, who had quite worked
himself into a state of excitement, "whatever follies I may have been
guilty of, nobody can accuse me of having neglected my duty in regard to
that brat's education; and now, after all my solicitude, the young viper
goes and spreads reports that a 'scamp,' meaning me, is about to marry
your sister! I'll flay him alive, and put him in salt afterwards!"

"But, my dear Lawless, out of the host of servants at Heathfield, how do
you know it was Shrimp who did it?"

"Oh, there's no mischief going on that he's not at the bottom of;
besides, a boy is never the worse for a flogging, for if he has not done
anything wrong beforehand, he's sure to make up for it afterwards; so it
comes right in the end, you see."

Thus saying, he roused the leader by a scientific application of the
thong, dashed round the gravel-sweep, and brought his horses up to the
hall-door in a neat and artistlike manner.

CHAPTER LIV -- MR. VERNOR MEETS HIS MATCH

"If thou dost find him tractable to us,
Encourage him, and tell him all our reasons.
If he be leaden, icy cold, unwilling,
Be thou so too."
--_Richard III_.

"For the intent and purpose of the law,
Hath full relation to