He was a man who
had achieved distinction in putting down railroad riots, so he was
well calculated for the task, although he was somewhat embarrassed by
the laughter of the bystanders when his comrade called out to him,
'Take your club, Mike, but don't use firearms unless your life's in
danger!'
The station reached, the usual examination took place. Atlantic
never could tell the name of the street in which he lived, nor the
number of the house. Pacific could, perhaps, but would not; and it
must be said, in apology for her abnormal defiance, that her mental
operations were somewhat confused, owing to copious indulgence in
strong tea, ginger, sugar-cane, and dried fish. She had not been
wisely approached in the first place, and she was in her sulkiest and
most combative humour; in fact, when too urgently pressed for
information as to her age, ancestry, and abiding-place, she told the
worthy police-officer to go to a locality for which he felt utterly
unsuited, after a life spent in the exaltation of virtue and the
suppression of vice. (The vocabulary of the twins was somewhat
poverty-stricken in respect to the polite phrases of society, but in
profanity it would have been rich for a parrot or a pirate.) The
waifs were presently given to the care of the police matron, and her
advice, sought later, was to the effect that the children had better
be fed and put to bed, and as little trouble expended upon them as
was consistent with a Christian city government.
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