ve no« -
    »Go on with your examination, Mr. District Attorney.«
    That gentleman eyed the familiarity between his witness and the prisoner
with manifest disgust, and indicated to the court that he was done.
    »Then you didn't feel frightened, Mr. Kirby?« said the counsel for the
prisoner.
    »Me! no,« said Billy, casting his eyes over his own huge frame with evident
self-satisfaction; »I'm not to be skeared so easy.«
    »You look like a hardy man; where were you born, sir?«
    »Varmount state; 'tis a mountaynious place, but there's a stiff soil, and
it's pretty much wooded with beech and maple.«
    »I have always heerd so,« said Mr. Lippet, soothingly. »You have been used
to the rifle yourself, in that country?«
    »I pull the second best trigger in this county. I knock under to Natty
Bumppo there, sin' he shot the pigeon.«
    Leather-stocking raised his head, and laughed again, when he abruptly thrust
out a wrinkled hand, and said -
    »You're young yet, Billy, and haven't seen the matches that I have; but
here's my hand; I bear no malice to you, I don't.«
    Mr. Lippet allowed this conciliatory offering to be accepted, and
judiciously paused, while the spirit of peace was exercising its influence over
the two; but the Judge interposed his authority.
    »This is an improper place for such dialogues,« he said. »Proceed with your
examination of this witness, Mr. Lippet, or I shall order the next.«
    The attorney started, as if unconscious of any impropriety, and continued -
    »So you settled the matter with Natty amicably on the spot, did you?«
    »He gi'n me the skin, and I didn't want to quarrel with an old man; for my
part, I see no such mighty matter in shooting a buck!«
    »And you parted friends? and you would never have thought of bringing the
business up before a court, hadn't you been subpoenaed?«
    »I don't think I should; he gi'n the skin, and I didn't feel a hard thought,
though Squire Doolittle got some affronted.«
    »I have done, sir,« said Mr. Lippet, probably relying on the charge of the
Judge, as he again seated himself, with the air of a
