hings generally bring at auction
all they are worth, except carpets."

I once tried a case before him against the Norwich Railroad
for setting fire to the house of a farmer by a spark from
a locomotive. It was a warm summer afternoon when the house
was burnt up. There was no fire in the house except a few
coals among the ashes in a cooking stove where the dinner
had been cooked some hours before. The railroad was very
near the house. There was a steep up-grade, so that the engineers
were tempted to open the bonnet of their smokestacks for a
better draught. We called as a witness a sturdy, round-faced,
fat old woman, who testified that she was sitting at her window,
knitting, in a house some little distance away, when the train
went by. She put in a mark to see, as she expressed it, "how
many times round" she could knit before supper. A few minutes
after, she heard a cry of fire, and looked out and saw a blaze
on the roof of her neighbor's house, just kindling, close
to the eaves on the side where the engine had passed. She
threw down the stocking and went to help. The stocking was
found after the fire with the mark just as she left it. So
we claimed that we could tell pretty well how long the time
had been between the passing of the train and the breaking
out of the fire. Judge Metcalf, who was always fussy and
interfering, said: "How can we tell anything by that, unless
we know how large the stocking was?" The old lady, with
a most bland smile, turned to the Judge as if she were soothing
an infant, lifted up the hem of her petticoats, and exhibited
a very sturdy ankle and calf, and said, "Just the size I wear,
your Honor." There was a roar of laughter in the court-house.
The incident was published in the morning paper the next day,
much to the Judge's indignation. He addressed the audience
when he came into Court in the morning, and said: "I see the
Worcester _Spy_ has been trying to put a fool's cap on my
head."

Judge Metcalf told me this story about Chief Justice Parsons.
The Chief Justice's manner to the Bar, as is well-known, was
exceedingly rough. He was no respecter of persons, and treated
the old and eminent lawyers quite as harshly as the youngsters.
The Bar used to call him Ursa Major. The Chief Justice used
to look over the pleadings carefully before the trials began.
It was in the time when special pleading often brought the
issue to be decided into a narrow compass. Soon after the