me-cocks, as well as everything
else."

That was one Monday evening, and the following Wednesday Bob O' Tims's
cock disappeared. When Bob discovered his loss, his face went quite pale
with anger. Without a word, he flung on his cap and set off for Jimmy
Taylor's cottage.

When he reached it, he went still whiter. For Jimmy was sitting at the
door, and up and down the yard in front of him strutted a magnificent
game-cock.

Bob O' Tims stretched out his forefinger, pointed at the cock, and with
a stubborn look forming about his mouth and jaw, observed:

"Yon's mine."

"It isn't," responded Jimmy. "It's mine."

"I tell thee, yon's mine. Yo've prigged it."

"It's mine! I bought it at th' fair."

"Thee never bought yon cock at any fair. It's mine, I tell thee."

Words grew high between the disputants, as the cock, in all its bronze
and golden splendor, marched up and down the yard, until the argument
between the two men terminated in a quarrel so violent that half-a-dozen
neighbors came in to see what was the matter. It ended in Bob O' Tims
insisting that he would take the matter into court. He was as good as
his word, and the next time that the bench met, Bob O' Tims summoned
Jimmy Taylor on a charge of having stolen his game-cock.

The magistrates listened to the witnesses on either side. Half-a-dozen
people were ready to swear that the cock belonged to Bob. But Jimmy
brought up a couple of witnesses to testify that they had seen him buy a
similar animal at Turton Fair. The cock was then brought into court. It
clucked and choked indignantly, and the partisans of Bob and Jimmy swore
against each other as hard as ever they could. The bench appeared
perplexed; and it was owing to their inability to come to any decision
that the magistrate's clerk made his famous suggestion.

"The case appears to me impossible to prove as it stands, your
worships," he said to the bench. "I would suggest, if I may be allowed,
that you direct an officer of the court to take the cock to some spot at
an equal distance between the houses of the plaintiff and of the
defendant. If he is there placed upon the ground, and left to his own
devices, he is pretty sure to make his way straight home."

The magistrates accepted the suggestion of the clerk, and gave judgment
accordingly. A policeman was ordered to carry out their instructions.
Now, this officer was young and raw, and had only recently been enrolled
in the constabulary. He was a