Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 06.pdf/28

 Dennis's Case.

DENNIS'S CASE.1 By Francis Dana.

A

CREDITOR who clung to every claim, Keen for his debts as Shylock late of Venice,

Once sued a debtor whose unlucky name Was Dennis. And when upon the contract suit he'd licked him, And on a debtor's hearing had him bested, He took a precept out and had his victim Arrested. Dennis applied for the Poor Debtor's Oath, His countenance with pearls of woe bedizened : The court found "fraud" and had him (very loath) Imprisoned. And shut him up behind an iron grating And gave him thirty days by way of sentence, — An ample term — it seemed — for cultivating Repentance. When thirty weary days had worn away, Dennis addressed his jailer : "Am I through, sir?" And felt surprised to hear that worthy say : "Not you, sir! "Debtors for fraud and contumacy both "Must stay in jail (the Statute leaves no doubt of it) "Until they can, by offering the oath, "Get out of it. 2 111o Mass. 18.

3G. S. 124, § 14.