"And d--- him, out of love for her, I kept him too, and the scoundrel is a liar and a thief.

This blessed day, merely to vex me and my boys here, he spoke ill of her, he did, and I'll--cut--his--life--out--I--will!" and with each word honest Mulciber applied a whack on the body of little Tom Billings; who, by shrill shrieks, and oaths in treble, acknowledged the receipt of the blows.
"Come, come," said Mr.Wood, "set the boy down, and the bellows a-going; my horse wants shoeing, and the poor lad has had strapping enough." The blacksmith obeyed, and cast poor Master Thomas loose.

As he staggered away and looked back at his tormentor, his countenance assumed an expression which made Mr.Wood say, grasping hold of Macshane's arm, "It's the boy, it's the boy! When his mother gave Galgenstein the laudanum, she had the self-same look with her!" "Had she really now ?" said Mr.Macshane.

"And pree, Meejor, who WAS his mother ?" "Mrs.Cat, you fool!" answered Wood.
"Then, upon my secred word of honour, she has a mighty fine KITTEN anyhow, my dear.

Aha!" "They don't DROWN such kittens," said Mr.Wood, archly; and Macshane, taking the allusion, clapped his finger to his nose in token of perfect approbation of his commander's sentiment.
While the blacksmith was shoeing the horse, Mr.Wood asked him many questions concerning the lad whom he had just been chastising, and succeeded, beyond a doubt, in establishing his identity with the child whom Catherine Hall had brought into the world seven years since.
Billings told him of all the virtues of his wife, and the manifold crimes of the lad: how he stole, and fought, and lied, and swore; and though the youngest under his roof, exercised the most baneful influence over all the rest of his family.