fact. One would think
so, with two or three hundred people with their tools, horses, and
cars. But yet, when the landlord determined on prosecuting the
tenant, there was not a person to be found who had seen the corn
removed;--not one. In fact people who had not seen, as the bailiff
had, the corn covering the broad field one day, and the same field
bare the next, began to think that the fact was not so; and that the
miraculous night's work was a fable. It was certain that the bailiff
had been deterred from entering on the ground, but it was also
certain that nothing but words had been used to deter him; he had
not been struck or even pushed; he had only been frightened; and
it seemed somewhat plain that his faint heart only had prevented
him from completing his seizure--either that or some pecuniary
inducement. Things were going badly with the bailiff, particularly
when in answer to Mr. O'Laugher, he had been obliged to confess that
on the morning on which the seizure should have been made he had
taken--a thrifle of sperrits! a glass, perhaps--yes, maybe, two--yes
he had taken two; three, suggested Mr. O'Laugher with a merely raised
eyebrow; he couldn't say that he had not taken three; four? again
inquired Mr. O'Laugher; he didn't think he had taken four. Could he
swear he had not taken four? He would not swear he hadn't. He would
not even swear he had not taken five;--nor even six, so conscientious
a bailiff was he; but he was nearly sure he hadn't, and would swear
positively he had not swallowed seven. Whereupon Mr. O'Laugher most
ill-naturedly put down his morning dram at three quarters of a
pint, and asked the unhappy bailiff whether that quantity was not
sufficient to make him see a crop of oats in an empty field. It
was going badly with the landlord and bailiff, and well with the
energetic, night-working, fraudulent tenant;--and would have gone
well with him, had he not determined to make assurance doubly sure.

A young man had been dining out, and had returned home at twelve
o'clock on the night of the supposed miraculous reaping; he had at
that hour walked home along the lane which skirted the field, and
had seen no men--heard no noise--nor perceived either reapers, cars,
horses, or any signs of work; yet he had passed the very gate of the
field through which the corn must have come out, had it come out at
all. Such was the effect of this young gentleman's evidence, when he
was handed over to Mr. Allewinde by M