"Come into my presence immejiately, and learn to answer me with more
respect."

Ben came in looking half defiant.

His father, whose perpendicularity made him look like a sitting
grenadier, commenced the examination thus:--

"I wish you to inform me what you was a doing of when I spoke to you."

It will be observed that the Squire's dignified utterances were
sometimes a little at variance with the rule of the best modern
grammarians.

"I was trying to prevent Hannah from taking the kitten," said Ben.

"What was you a doing of before Hannah went out?"

"Playing with Kitty."

"Why were you standing near the hogshead, Benjamin?"

"Why," said Ben, ingenuously, "the hogshead happened to be near me--that
was all."

"Were you not trying to drown the kitten?"

"O, I wouldn't drown her for anything," said Ben with an injured
expression, mentally adding, "short of a three-cent piece."