listen carelessly to, would be knells to us, if we knew what would
happen twixt them and their next chiming.

The vibration of the last stroke was swelling and sinking in the air,
when a heavy step sounded on the stair, and without even the ceremony of
knocking, the door was pushed suddenly open, and the fellow, who had
intruded upon him the evening before, entered the room. In one hand he
held a rope and in the other a club.

"Well, old chap," he said, "you see I am here as I told you I would be.
I've given you a whole night to study up the law."

"Law! what law?" exclaimed the old man, interrupting him, "I don't know
that I broken"--

"Come, come, old shuffler, none of your blarney, if you please," broke
in the fellow; "you know well enough what law I mean. I mean the
dog-law."

"Dog-law! dog-law!" answered the old man, "what law is that?"

"Oh, you don't pull the wool over my eyes," sneered the other; "you know
what law I mean well enough, but, to jog your memory, I'll say that the
law I mean makes the owner of a dog pay a tax of three dollars, and if
the tax isn't paid"--

"Three dollars!" ejaculated the poor man. "Three dollars! when have I
had so much money as that? Three dollars! you might as well have asked
me to pay three thousand as three."