GROWING OLD 



243 



pistol shoot you through the hand or anywhere 

 else. 



Mark now what would happen. Poor Mr. 

 Samuel would come sneaking along the passage for 

 his dinner, and would find a thread stretched tight 

 across his doorway. ' Oho/ he would say, ' they 

 think that a bit of thread will be enough to keep 

 me out, do they ? And what were my teeth given 

 me for, I should like to know V And so he would nip 

 the thread in half with one snap of his long tusks. 

 That would set free the band, which would pull 

 the other string, and the rest would be just like 

 ringing a bell or saying 'The house that Jack 

 built.' The string would pull a piece of wood, 

 which would pull another string, which would 

 puU another piece of wood, which would pull 

 another string (are you dizzy yet ?), which would 

 pull the trigger of the pistol, and poor Mr. Samuel 

 ought to have a bullet through his brain. 



As it happens he didn't, because the pistol was 

 not pointed quite straight, or else was not lashed 

 quite tight, and the bullet came smashing into the 

 side of the passage, but I tell you that I never want 

 to feel more frightened than I did at that moment, 

 and as soon as my senses recovered themselves from 

 the noise of the general scatteration, I did a bolt 



16—2 



