alluding to a humorous expression of the day for a sheep.
"Here I have a rebellious servant, and I'd like to know how
I'm to get warrant to flog him, if there is to be no court.
Dost mean to have no law in the land?"

"I guess," retorted Bagby, "that if the king won't regard the
law, he can't expect the rest of us to, noways. What 's sauce
for the goose is sauce for the gander, and if there ever was a
gander it's him,"--a mot which produced a hearty laugh from
the crowd.

"As justice of the peace I order ye to open this door,
constable," called the squire.

The constable pulled out a bunch of keys and tossed it in
the snow, saying, "'T ain't fer me to say there sha'n't be no
sittin' of the court, an' if yer so set on tryin', why, try."

The squire deliberately went down two steps to get the keys,
but the remaining six he took at one tumble, having received
a push from one of the loafers back of him which sent his
heavy body sprawling in the snow, his whip, hat, and, worst of
all, his wig, flying in different directions. In a moment he
had risen, cleared the snow from his mouth and eyes, and
recovered his scattered articles, but it was not so easy to
recover his dignity, and this was made the more difficult by
the discovery that the bunch of keys had disappeared.

"Who took those keys?" he roared as soon as he could
articulate, but the only reply the question produced was