with the shutter, ready to let slip among 'em. And what
do you think it was?--Hundreds and hundreds of them nasty,
dirty, filthy, ugly, black devils of rooks, located in
the trees at the back eend of the house. Old Nick couldn't
have slept near 'em; caw caw, caw, all mixt up together
in one jumble of a sound, like "jawe."

"You black, evil-lookin', foul-mouthed villains,' sais
I, 'I'd like no better sport than jist to sit here, all
this blessed day with these pistols, and drop you one
arter another, _I_ know.' But they was pets, was them
rooks, and of course like all pets, everlastin' nuisances
to every body else.

"Well, when a man's in a feeze, there's no more sleep
that hitch; so I dresses and sits up; but what was I to
do? It was jist half past four, and as it was a rainin'
like every thing, I know'd breakfast wouldn't be ready
till eleven o'clock, for nobody wouldn't get up if they
could help it--they wouldn't be such fools; so there was
jail for six hours and a half.

"Well, I walked up and down the room, as easy as I could,
not to waken folks; but three steps and a round turn
makes you kinder dizzy, so I sits down again to chaw the
cud of vexation.

"'Ain't this a handsum fix?' sais I, 'but it sarves you
right, what busniss had you here at all? you always was
a fool, and always will be to the eend of the chapter.