by his means, I 've nigh about as good as lost three tons of hay. I do n't think it's my duty to put up with it any longer.'
Accordingly, as soon as breakfast was over, Mr. Frier was out, spattering along in the mud and rain, with his old great-coat thrown over his shoulders, the sleeves flapping loosely down by his side, and his drooping hat twisted awry, wending his way to court, to appear before the grand jury.
'Well, Mr. Frier, what do you want?' asked the foreman, as the complainant entered the room.
'I come to complain of Jerry Guttridge to the grand jury,' replied Mr. Frier, taking off his hat, and shaking the rain from off it.
'Why, what has Jerry Guttridge done?' said the foreman. 'I did n't think he had life enough to do any thing worth complaining of to the grand jury.'
'It's because he has n't got life enough to do any thing,' said Mr. Frier, 'that I 've come to complain of him. The fact is, Mr. Foreman, he's a lazy, idle fellow, and wont work, nor provide nothin' for his family to eat; and they 've been half starving this long time; and the neighbors have had to keep sending in something, all the time, to keep 'em alive.'
'But,' said the foreman, 'Jerry's a peaceable kind of a chap, Mr. Frier; has any body ever talked to him about it, in a neighborly way, and advised him to do differently! And may be he has no chance to work, where he could get any thing for it.'
'I am sorry to say,' replied Mr. Frier, 'that he's been talked to a good deal, and it don't do no good; and I tried hard to get him to work for me, yesterday afternoon, and offered to give him victuals enough to last his family 'most a week, but I could n't get him to, and he went off to the grog-shop, to see some jockeys swap horses. And when I told him, calmly, I did n't think he was in the way of his duty, he flew in a passion, and called me an old, miserable, dirty, meddling vagabond, and a scoundrel, and a scape-gallows, and an infernal small piece of a man!'
'Abominable!' exclaimed one of the jury; 'who ever heard of such outrageous conduct!'
'What a vile, blasphemous wretch!' exclaimed another; 'I should n't 'a wondered if he 'd 'a fell dead on the spot!'
The foreman asked Mr. Frier if Jerry had 'used them very words.'
'Exactly them words, every one of 'em,' said Mr. Frier.
'Well,' said the foreman, 'then there is no more to be said. Jerry certainly deserves to be indicted, if any body in this world ever did.'
Accordingly the indictment was drawn up, a warrant was issued, and the next day Jerry was brought before the court, to answer to the charges preferred against him. Mrs. Sally Guttridge and Mr. Nat. Frier were summoned as witnesses. When the honorable court was ready to hear the case, the clerk called Jerry Guttridge, and bade him hearken to an indictment found against him by the grand inquest for the district of Maine, now sitting at Saco, in the words following, viz: 'We present Jerry Guttridge for an idle person, and not providing for his family; and giving reproachful language to Mr. Nat. Frier, when he reproved him for his idleness.' 'Jerry Guttridge,
