CHAPTER XXV.

SUMMONS v. SUMMONS.

WHAT Would any man of moderately good sense and average power of judgment have done, in Griffith Williams's position, supposing such qualities and position to be at all compatible? Surely, he would have eaten his leek, knowing that he had given the provocation, and that the more the affair was talked of, the worse it must be for him.

Of course, therefore, that was just what Mr. Williams did not do. By the side of this outrage upon him, his own on David seemed to become too trivial to engage the attention of sensible men. His friends were to a man ready to testify that he had done nothing at the meeting to justify Israel's ferocious attack. He was a magistrate, and felt convinced that his brother magistrates would resent such an atrocity done on a member of their order. Finally he had no longer the restraint that fear of publicity had before given. Everybody knew of the circumstance; the local papers were full of it, and when in sheer disgust of reading even friendly notices in them, he turned to his London daily, the very first thing that attracted his eye was a paragraph headed, A MAGISTRATE HORSEWHIPPED.

Before he went home that night he had obtained, not what he wanted, a warrant for the arrest of Israel Mort, but a summons for the next meeting of the Petty

Sessions.

This was executed immediately, the man employed forcing his way into Israel's bed chamber to serve the summons, and serving it upon him in bed.

The alarm and distress of Mrs. Mort and David may be easily imagined, as they, both trembling, and fancying

that perhaps some great crime had been committed to obtain their late prosperity, followed the man up the stairs, David in his night shirt, having been waked by the clamour of the man outside wanting to see Mr. Mort particularly.

Israel sat up, took the document in one hand, and a candle in the other, and read it through, then said to the

man

'Very well. You'll have one to serve for me in the morning. Good night. He then adjusted his night-cap, turned, and addressed himself again to sleep.

His wife and son, having followed the stranger downstairs, and fastened the door after him, sat down, and gazed blankly on each other's faces.

'It's all coming out now, mother!' said David, in a tone of the deepest, most passionate despair. I thought it would! Father's going to get a summons against Mr. Williams for beating me! I shall have to be in courtand-and-Nest will hate me all her life if her father gets punished and disgraced, and all through me. And if she doesn't, it'll be all the same. And she'll never be able to speak to me! And she'll get older, and feel she's rich, and beautiful, and that I was but a collier's boy, and that her father had whipped me like one of his dogs---andbut mother, I won't go! No, that I will not!'

'Won't go where, David?'

Not to the court, to speak against Mr. Griffith. I couldn't. No-not if father were to use me worse than Mr. Griffith, or to bribe me by saying I should go no more down into the mine.'

'Hush, David-hush!

Or the father will hear.'

She drew him nearer to her, made him nestle in her loving bosom, and there they sat, and talked over plans that had been for some time seething in the brain of David, and which now for the first time he found his unhappy mother willing to listen to.

And in talking, in low, earnest, pathetic tones, they forgot how time was passing; and when at last David lay down in his little cot, and his mother kissed him, he had

to ask her to draw down the blind, for already it was daybreak.

Israel, on his part, was also wakeful. Not disturbed in the least by the summons, or by the new contest he must engage in, of summons against summons, countercharge against charge; no, he with clear eye saw that the issue could be of no serious moment to him, even if he got the worst, and dismissed it, characteristically, till the morrow, when there would be something to do.

They breakfasted very early; and Israel's thoughts naturally busied themselves more than ordinarily on the subject of David. Thus he came to take more notice than was usual with him, and so became aware, as he supposed, how deeply both wife and son were affected by the business of the day.

Not choosing to consult with them on such a subject, or indeed to speak of the affair at all-looking upon David's part in it as such a mere matter of course that it was not even worth while questioning him about it in advance--he still, with a feeling unusual with him, set himself to ease the hearts of both, if he could, on much more important matters.

'Wife,' said he, you will be glad to hear that David gets on so fairly that there'll be no need for him to stay long down below.'

Indeed!' said Mrs. Mort, with an air that was more like that of pained surprise, than of the sudden burst of joyful gratitude Israel expected. And then her eye seemed wistfully to seek David's, who determinedly looked down.

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• Indeed!' said he, sternly repeating her word.

• Doesn't that suit thee—or David?'

'Oh yes, indeed!'

Then don't interrupt. You break the chain of my thought, and it takes time and patience to get it straight again. Where was I? Aye, David, thou shall see, in a few months most likely, what it is I have been working for. I shall send thee to a college I know of, where thou will get an education fit for a prince; and larn all the sciences that bear upon mining business; and then, after

a spell of that, you shall go under a good man I know, who has the management of a whole lot of mines, so that you can get among 'em every sort of experience; and then thou shall come back and be my agent a year or two, and then come out at last as a whole company, in thy single self, for Israel Mort and Co. will be just us two. What does thou say to that, David-and thou too, wife?'

Both were much moved, and deeply grateful, and so far Israel's experiment had been a successful one. But if he had been more accustomed to read the faces of those about him, and who should have been dear to him-nay, who were dear to him in a sort of fashion-he would have seen something in the manner of both, heard something in the tones of both, of warning, and of the necessity that he should at once probe the matter to the bottom.

But he was too much engrossed by his worldly cares to see more than they desired he should see, and perfectly content that they accepted his scheme as one of no ordinary value.

It had been arranged that they were to be ready at eight o'clock, dressed in their best clothes; when Israel would send a light cart, and careful driver, to take both to the court-house at Leath.

But David, as the time came for his father to go forth, could not help, it seemed, in the gratitude of his heart, coming close to Israel's chair, and taking his hand, and kissing it; and dropping on his knees on a little stool that stood there; and at last clasping his father round the waist, and bursting out into a passion of tears, and sobs, and broken speech.

All Israel could get out of the boy's words was David's sorrow for so misunderstanding him, and giving him so much trouble; and his yearning desire to be forgiven and to be thought as well of as possible in the future.

And then, just as David's gratitude became almost oppressive, Mrs. Mort must join in, and Israel had to pass his arm round her, and quiet her excitement, inexplicable as it seemed to him. But he was in the mood either to

feel he could respond to the affection exhibited, or seem to do so, very happily.

The court-house was crowded. There was a full bench of magistrates, and every spare seat on the bench was occupied by noblemen and gentlemen resident in the neighbourhood, who had heard of this, the latest incident of the war between Israel Mort and his former employer, and wanted to see the leaders of the fray, and watch the fortunes of the legal fight.

Mr. Griffith Williams had engaged counsel, but Israel absolutely forbad his lawyers to copy his example. He would conduct his own case, and all he asked was, they should instruct and guide him as to forms.

Griffith was on the bench, a part of his face and brow and one eye covered with black silk, to conceal the wound and its dressings. Israel was in the body of the court where the lawyers sat.

The first thing that startled the ears of the auditory was Israel's harsh demand, the moment the case was called on, that Mr. Griffith Williams should do what he-Israel -was obliged to do, occupy a place in the body of the

court.

'It seems to me, Sir,' he said, 'that as a magistrate among magistrates, Mr. Griffith Williams cannot possibly be also a defendant, standing before the court for judgment in a case where he is charged with wanton cruelty to a boy of tender years.'

There was some murmuring and putting of heads together on the bench at this appeal, and Mr. Griffith Williams rose, and in a gentlemanly way that could not altogether conceal that he trembled with excitement or repressed passion at Israel's audacity, offered at once to resign his privilege, and descend to the place suggested.

Here the chairman interposed, and said in bland accents, after a shrewd glance round, that told him there was no vacant seat

'It is no question of privilege, Mr. Mort, but of con

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