Is Tom, brave boy, full o' the fat o' the land?
Who made fowl, I should like to know, and us to eat 'em?
And where's the harm or sin in bringing down a bird?
No, Miss, them ere beaks, dammem (beg humble pardon, Miss, indeed I won't again) them ere justices, as they call themselves, makes hard laws to hedge about their own pleasures; and if the poor man starves, he starves; but if he stays his hunger with the free, wild birds of heaven, they prison him and punish him, and call him poacher." "Ben, those who make the laws, do so under God's permission; and they who break man's law, break His law." "Nonsense, child,"-- suddenly said Roger; "hold your silly tongue.

Do you mean to tell us, God's law and man's law are the same thing! No, Grace, I can't stomach that; God makes right, and man makes might--riches go one way, and poor men's wrong's another.

Money, money's the great law-maker, and a full purse frees him that has it, while it turns the jailor's key on the wretch that has it not: one of those wretches is the hopeless Roger Acton.

Well, well," he added, after a despondent sigh, "say no more about it all; that's right, good-wife--why, they do look plump.

And if I can't stomach Grace's text-talk there, I'm sure I can the birds; for I know what keeps crying cupboard lustily." It was a faint effort to be gay, and it only showed his gloom the denser.