When there wasn't no more witnesses to carve up,
one lawyer made a speech, an' he set that crooked case so straight,
that you could see through it from the over-shot wheel clean back
to Brown's grandfather. Then another feller made a speech, and he
set the whole thing up another way. It was jus' as clear, to look
through, but it was another case altogether, no more like the other
one than a apple-pie is like a mug o' cider. An' then they both
took it up, an' they swung it around between them, till it was all
twisted an' knotted an' wound up, an' tangled, worse than a skein
o' yarn in a nest o' kittens, an' then they give it to the jury.
"Well, when them jurymen went out, there wasn't none of 'em, as
Jone tole me afterward, as knew whether is was Brown or Adams as
was dead, or whether the mill was to grind soup, or to be run by
soup-power. Of course they couldn't agree; three of 'em wanted to
give a verdict for the boy that died, two of 'em was for Brown's
grandfather, an' the rest was scattered, some goin' in for damages
to the witnesses, who ought to get somethin' for havin' their char-
ac-ters ruined. Jone he jus' held back, ready to jine the other
eleven as soon as they'd agree. But they couldn't do it, an' they
was locked up three days and four nights. You'd better believe I
got pretty wild about it, but I come to court every day an' waited
an' waited, bringin' somethin' to eat in a baskit.
"One day, at dinner-time, I seed the judge astandin' at the court-
room door, a-wipin' his forrid with a handkerchief, an' I went up
to him an' said, 'Do you think, sir, they'll get through this thing
soon?'
"'I can't say, indeed,' said he.
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