"Old Tarbox!" repeated the squire in a tone of reproof. "Really, you should speak more respectfully of Mr. Nathan Tarbox." "Everybody calls him old Tarbox," said Bridget, "and he's the meanest man in town." "Let that pass," said the justice, using a pet phrase. "Tell him to come in." Mr. Tarbox immediately afterwards was ushered into the room. "Good evening, Mr. Tarbox," said the squire, in a dignified tone. "Good evenin', squire." "All well at home, I trust, Mr. Tarbox." "Oh yes," answered Tarbox, impatient to come to business. "I've come on law business." "Indeed!" "I want justice!" continued the farmer, slapping the table energetically, to the imminent hazard of a cup and saucer standing beside. "If I can be of any service to you in my—ahem! judicial capacity, I of course should consider it my duty to help you." "I want a warrant for the arrest of a brute." "Ahem! my powers do not extend to the arrest of brutes. They are limited to human beings." "You know what I mean—a brute on two legs, and mighty long ones, too." "I cannot say I apprehend your meaning, Mr. Tarbox. Whom do you wish to arrest, let me ask?" "The Norwegian giant." "The Norwegian giant!" repeated the squire in astonishment. "Yes; the giant they've got at the show." "What has he been doing?" "What hasn't he been doing?" shouted Tarbox. "He came into my lot this afternoon, seized me by the collar, nearly shook me to pieces, and kicked my dog Bruiser to death." Squire Price listened in undisguised amazement. "Really," he said, "this was a high-handed outrage. Was he drunk?" "No; he can't get off on no such plea as that. He was as sober as you or I." "Did he assign any reason for his extraordinary attack?" "He was meddling in affairs that he had nothing to do with." "What affairs?" This was rather an embarrassing question to answer. "The fact is, I caught Jimmy Graham and his brother cutting across my lot—a clear case of trespass—and I was about to give Jimmy a lesson when that brute interfered—" "What sort of a lesson were you going to give him?" asked the squire, shrewdly. "Why, you see I had tied the boy to a tree, and was going to touch him gently with a horsewhip, when in jumped this overgrown bully and attacked me." "Ahem! I begin to see. I hear that the Graham boys' mother was taken sick this afternoon, and the boys were probably going for the doctor." "So they said, but they had no right to go across my lot." "It strikes me, Mr. Tarbox, they were excusable under the circumstances." "No, they were not; I have forbidden 'em time and again from goin' across my field." "There's a path, isn't there?" "Yes, but it's my path." "Did the boy attract the giant's attention by screaming?" "Yes." "Well, Mr. Tarbox, to be frank with you, I think it was very natural for him to interfere in defence of a boy about to receive brutal treatment." "I hope you ain't goin' to take the side of lawbreakin', squire?"