大律师的梦想他们带着顶针，小心翼翼地寻找;他们带着叉子和希望追逐它;他们用铁路股份来威胁它的生命;他们用微笑和肥皂使它着迷。可是大律师厌倦了徒劳地证明海狸做花边是错的，就睡着了。他在梦中清清楚楚地看到海狸，他的幻想已经停留了这么久。他梦见自己站在一个阴暗的法庭里，那条蛇眼睛里戴着玻璃眼镜，穿着长袍，戴着手铐，戴着假发，正在为一头猪辩护，指控他离开猪圈。证人毫无差错地证明，当他们找到麦垛时，麦垛是空的;法官在柔和的暗流中不断地解释法律的情况。起诉书从来没有明确地表达过，似乎蛇鲨已经开始了，在任何人猜测猪应该做什么之前，他已经说了三个小时。陪审团的意见各不相同(早在起诉书宣读之前)，他们同时发言，谁也听不懂别人说的话。“你一定知道——”法官说，可是蛇怪叫道:“福吉!” That statute is obsolete quite! Let me tell you, my friends, the whole question depends On an ancient manorial right. "In the matter of Treason the pig would appear To have aided, but scarcely abetted: While the charge of Insolvency fails, it is clear, If you grant the plea 'never indebted'. "The fact of Desertion I will not dispute: But its guilt, as I trust, is removed (So far as relates to the costs of this suit) By the Alibi which has been proved. "My poor client's fate now depends on your votes." Here the speaker sat down in his place, And directed the Judge to refer to his notes And briefly to sum up the case. But the Judge said he never had summed up before; So the Snark undertook it instead, And summed it so well that it came to far more Than the Witnesses ever had said! When the verdict was called for, the Jury declined, As the word was so puzzling to spell; But they ventured to hope that the Snark wouldn't mind Undertaking that duty as well. So the Snark found the verdict, although, as it owned, It was spent with the toils of the day: When it said the word "GUILTY!" the Jury all groaned And some of them fainted away. Then the Snark pronounced sentence, the Judge being quite Too nervous to utter a word: When it rose to its feet, there was silence like night, And the fall of a pin might be heard. "Transportation for life" was the sentence it gave, "And then to be fined forty pound." The Jury all cheered, though the Judge said he feared That the phrase was not legally sound. But their wild exultation was suddenly checked When the jailer informed them, with tears, Such a sentence would not have the slightest effect, As the pig had been dead for some years. The Judge left the Court, looking deeply disgusted But the Snark, though a little aghast, As the lawyer to whom the defence was intrusted, Went bellowing on to the last. Thus the Barrister dreamed, while the bellowing seemed To grow every moment more clear: Till he woke to the knell of a furious bell, Which the Bellman rang close at his ear.