eat, drink, and wear, and a proper roof over his head.
_J. N_. Murder! thieves! fire!
_S. E_. There, there! Don't make such a row, old fellow! Get out of
this, and bellow in the fields with the horned cattle, if you must
bellow. Perhaps they'll want Courts of Justice now, as we don't. And as
for you, good fellows, all give a cheer for the Social Revolution which
has Turned the Tables; and so--to work--to work!
[JUDGE _screams and faints, and Curtain falls_.
PART II.
SCENE.--_The Fields near a Country Village; a Copse close by. Time--After
the Revolution_.
[_Enter_ CITIZEN (_late_ JUSTICE) NUPKINS. _He looks cautiously about to
right and left, then sits down on the ground_.]
_C. N_. Now I think I may safely take a little rest: all is quiet here.
Yet there are houses in the distance, and wherever there are houses now,
there are enemies of law and order. Well, at least, here is a good thick
copse for me to hide in in case anybody comes. What am I to do? I shall
be hunted down at last. It's true that those last people gave me a good
belly-full, and asked me no questions; but they looked at me very hard.
One of these times they will bring me before a magistrate, and then it
will be all over with me. I shall be charged as a rogue and a vagabond,
and made to give an account of myself; and then they will find out who I
am, and then I shall be hanged--I shall be hanged--I, Justice Nupkins!
Ah, the happy days when _I_ used to sentence people to be hanged! How
easy life was then, and now how hard! [_Hides his face in his hands and
weeps_.
[_Enter_ MARY PINCH, _prettily dressed_.]
_M. P_. How pleasant it is this morning! These hot late summer
mornings, when the first pears are ripening, and the wheat is nearly
ready for cutting, and the river is low and weedy, remind me most of the
times when I was a little freckle-faced child, when I was happy in spite
of everything, though it was hard lines enough sometimes. Well, well, I
can think of those times with pleasure now; it's like living the best of
the early days over again, now we are so happy, and the children like to
grow up straight and comely, and not having their poor little faces all
creased into anxious lines. Yes, I am my old self come to life again;
it's all like a pretty picture of the past days. They were brave men.
and good fellows who helped to bring it about: I feel almost like saying
my prayers to them. And yet there we
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