SHOOTING A8 IT WAiS, AND AS IT 18. 19 



speech could be elicited. There was blood on tlie 

 boy's chin and lips, evidently from his mouth, while 

 in silence lie continued to set a fixed gaze on Mr. 

 Foley's spectacles, and to move his clieeks in 

 strange evolutions, Avhich Mr. Foley's horrified 

 glance immediately construed into convulsions. 



^'He's ia convulsions," exclaimed Mr. Foley. 

 Then, as if to arouse the boy to some more 

 healthful effort, he cried, ^^ AVhy doii't you speak ?" 



The boy's cheeks rolled about more than ever, 

 and his lips became violently agitated, his unoc- 

 cupied hand arose, it met his mouth, and 'twixt 

 his finger and thumb, and from his hitherto 

 occupied tongue, he knip^Dcd a shot, a little flat- 

 tened on its sides, and, holding it up to Mr. 

 Foley's face, he uttered, in considerable and in 

 triumphant mirth, to his patron, '^Here a is." 

 The shot cannoning off the tree, from the rest of the 

 charge the shot had severed, cut the boy's li}^, and 

 stuck between two of his front teeth, his prisoner. 

 This the boy's tongue had been busy with, and 

 first or last he was resolved not to speak till he 

 had dislodged and captured it. 



'^ Well, my little man," I said, giving him lialf-a- 



crown, ^' then you are not hurt ? " 



c 2 



