The first was Tompkins' case.
A man called at the colonel's law-office one day and said, "Colonel, my name is Tompkins.

I called to see you about a dog difficulty that bewilders me, and I thought maybe you might throw some light on it--might give me the law points, so's I'd know whether it was worth while suing or not.
"Well, colonel, you see me and Potts went into partnership on a dog; we bought him.

He was a setter; and me and Potts went shares on him, so's to take him out a-hunting.

It was never exactly settled which half of him I owned and which half belonged to Potts; but I formed an idea in my own mind that the hind end was Tompkins' and the front end Potts'.

Consequence was that when the dog barked I always said, 'There goes Potts half exercising himself;' and when the dog's tail wagged, I always considered that my end was being agitated.