the defendant seemed to be without counsel, he would undertake, with the consent of the court and the approval of his colleague, to defend the youth. He added that though a stranger, he had just obtained permission to practice in the Rhode Island courts, and had set up an office in Providence. He was allowed to argue the case, and then there was a stir. I just rubbed my hands together, and says I, ‘Here’s a man that has got the sand in him!’ and he had. Why he talked more law and said more things that made us laugh and then cry, than I could tell you in a week. He spoke of the woman first, and said that a woman’s reputation was like a fragile vase—the slightest blow ruined it forever. And then he spoke of the blessed influence of a good woman on a man’s destiny, and pictured the comfort and holiness of home in such words that I shall never forget it. And then when the women were all crying slyly, he pointed out that in this case the woman was older than the husband, and said there was reason to believe that her path in life had not always been bounded with rectitude or truth. Instead of bringing a pure and faithful heart to her young and trusting husband, she had married him under false pretences, taking advantage of his youth and inexperience. She had disgraced his name and made him ashamed to be longer seen in public with her, and finally he had sought to escape by striking out a new path for himself and leaving her to go her way in peace—if she could. Oh, it was beautiful!” said the old man, cracking his whip as we came upon another level space; and though it was quite dark now, I fancied a tear was beaming in his eye, brought there by his own honest enthusiasm.

“That young man talked,” he continued, “for an hour; and he might have talked for twenty-four, and no one would get tired. Before he had spoken fifteen minutes the old judge raised his spectacles up on to his forehead, and putting his chin in his hands, he never took his eyes off of him till he sat down. And when he did sit down there was a stillness all over that great house like that in a meeting-house when the minister spreads out his arms and says, “Now may the grace of our Lord and Saviour be with you all.’ I could hardly keep in my chair till the old judge got up, and then I arose with him. He wasn’t a man of many words. He very deliberately said: ‘In my opinion the indictment’s squashed. The court has adjourned.’ I couldn’t hold in any longer; I yelled right out, ‘Judge, you’ve got the sand in you, and no joking;’ and that was the opinion of everybody. As for the young man, why, sir, they’d carried him on their shoulders if he’d let ’em, they were so glad he popped in as he did. They cheered him and shook hands with him, and he laughed and shook hands back, and everybody was as happy as kittens. I stood back watching his handsome face and figure, and thinking all the time I had seen him before, till he started to go out the door, and then as I wasn’t going to lose my shake, I started after him. He was just trotting out of the yard as I overtook him trying to catch up with his friends, who had gone on a little ahead to unhitch the horse. I reached out my hand to him, and told him how glad I was he called around, and then all of a sudden, he gave me a look, and I spoke right out and said I, ‘Young man, I’ve seen you before somewhere’s.’ ‘Well, I don’t know,’ says he, as fresh and gentlemanly as if I’d been the Governor of the State; ‘I am from New York. Have you been there lately?’ ‘Not in a good many years. You must have been a boy when I was there, and a pretty small boy, too.’ ‘Well, if I was a very small boy, I was a bootblack. Who knows but I shined ’em up for you twenty good years ago?’ and he laughed again and said he was quite proud to say that at an early age he had acquired a tolerable acquaintance with the difference between calfskin and cowhide by actual experience with both. I couldn’t hardly catch my breath, I was so eager, but I choked down my heart that was all the time trying to crowd up into my mouth, and says I, ‘Your name a’nt Henry P—?’ and before I knew it he said it was; and then we shook hands again and again, and talked things over till his friends got so impatient he had to go, though he didn’t want to. Well, well, welly! he’s a judge now, God bless him, and I’m going to Northampton some day and see him. The sand in that man,” he concluded impressively, “would sink a ship.”

For a quarter of an hour we rode on in silence. No comment of mine could have added a touch to the symmetry of the story; the wrong word would surely have jarred upon the old man’s mind and hurt his feelings. I knew this, and therefore held my peace. But as we came on to the summit of the last hill-top and saw at our feet the brilliantly lighted Profile House, its great white surface standing out against the inky background formed by Mount Lafayette in most dazzling relief, I essayed to reopen the conversation on a new topic as we dashed along, and observed that I supposed there were a good many newspaper correspondents up here this season.