185G.] Kate Osborne. 237 



charge you nothing, and give you a month's wages to boot." A general 

 laugh followed this, and a dozen voices, excited by the state of affairs, 

 called out, ' Let him try it, Osborne ; let him try it.' Osborne had, 

 indeed, no alternative; and had become somewhat encouraged by 

 Quirk's evident ease and self-possession before the assemblage ; so, smiling 

 in very desperation, he replied, " Well, as you say, Dick, ' let 'em rip.' " 

 The trial at once began. Pclton's witnesses were called, examined, 

 and turned over with a sneer to ' lawyer Quirk ' ! for cross-examination. 

 And such an examination ! At first they scoffed, then blushed, then 

 stammered, then got mad, then twisted, and squirmed, while Quirk 

 sifted, and quizzed, and cornered them so completely that all began to 

 stare, and none was more agape with wonder than Farmer Osborne 

 himself. Pclton's attorneys objected, interrupted, swore, and tried to 

 explain; to all whieh Quirk only said, ''Keep cool in ycour skins, gen- 

 tlemen, yeour turn '11 come, by'm by." They then essayed to overwhelm 

 him with ridicule ; but Dick was as cool as though he was out on the 

 prairie, shooting prairie-birds, and every retort told on his opponents so 

 effectually as to call out applause from the auditory, in spite of all cries 

 of * order.' The testimony closed, the arguments to the jury commenced. 

 Pelton's case was presented by his leading counsel ; and, when Quirk 

 began, expectation was on tiptoe. After laying open the material points 

 in the case, clearly and forcibly, Quirk began to vrarm in the argument 

 and as he became roused his yankee idiom fell from him, and the crowded 

 audience stood and stared with amazement, as from his lips there rolled 

 the gushing tide of lofty eloquence — the clearest logic of thought 

 clothed in the purest form of expression. His opponents were stupefied 

 with amazement ; so was the Colonel, who had forgotten that he was 

 defendant, and as a spectator sat with staring eyes, and gaping mouth, 

 as he listened to the orator whose words seemed to warm every heart 

 with a love of justice, and to convince all minds of the attempted wrong. 

 And when he turned the fiery arrows of his burning sarcasm on the cor- 

 rupt witnesses, and the litigious Telton, they quivered, and squirmed, 

 and crept away from public view, like reptiles flayed alive. With a few 

 closing words of high-wrought appeal he held all breathing silent, though 

 every pulse of his auditory was bounding with intense excitement. And 

 for the space of near half a minute after his voice had ceased, that 

 silence reigned ; then the spell was broken, and a shout of applause went 

 up, that no court could silence ! And lifting the gifted advocate in 

 their stalwart arms, the delighted crowd bore him aloft and around in 

 triumph. The plaintiff's Counsel essayed to reply, but after Quirk's it 

 Bounded vain and vapid ; no ear listened — no mind heeded ; and as soon 



