jumps a lion, and at you!

_Odoherty_.--The Links--oh! James, you are no Polyglott.

_Tickler_.--I don't wish to insinuate that I should like to be
eaten, either by lion or shepherd, but I confess that I consider that
the new drop would be a worse fate than either.

_North_.--Quite mistaken--the drop's a trifle.

_Moses Edrehi_.--Ja whöl, Milord.

_Shepherd_.--As to being hangit, why, that's a matter that happens
to mony a deacent man, and it's but a spurl or tway, and a gaspin
gurble, an' ae stour heave, and a's ower; ye're dead ere a body's weel
certified that the board's awa' from behind you--and the night-cap's a
great blessing, baith to you and the company. The gilliteen again, I'm
tauld its just perfectly ridiculous how soon that does it's turn. Up ye
come, and tway chiels ram your head into a shottle in a door like, and
your hands are clasped ahint ye, and swee gangs the door, and you upset
headforemost, and in below the axe, and hangie just taps you on the neck
to see that it's in the richt nick, and whirr, whirr, whirr, touch the
spring, and down comes the thundering edge, loaded with at least a
hunder weight o' lead--your head's aff like a sybo--Tuts, that's
naething--onybody might mak up their mind to be justified on the
gilliteen.

_Odoherty_.--The old Dutch way--the broadsword--is, after all, the
best; by much the easiest and the genteelest. You are seated in a most
comfortable arm-chair with a silk handkerchief over your eyes--they read