hristian remarks
were made concerning him. As if Providence would cut off the best
and most promising, for such indirect and uncertain good as might, or
might not be produced in another less worthy!

CHAPTER XXIV.

A LAW-SUIT (TO BE SKIPPED).

A young lover's first kiss, a young hunter's first deer, and a young
lawyer's first case, doubtless linger in their several memories, as
events of moment.

Bart had tried his first case before a justice of the peace, been
beaten, and was duly mortified. It is very likely he was on the wrong
side, but he did not think so; and if he had thought so, he would
not have been fully consoled. A poorer advocate than he could have
convinced himself that he was right, and fail, as he did, to convince
the court. It was a case of little importance to any but the parties.
To them, every case is of the gravest moment. He acquitted himself
creditably: showed that he understood the case, examined his
witnesses, and presented it clearly.

Others came to him, and he advised with caution and prudence; and as
Fall approached, he was in request in various small matters; men were
surprised at the modesty of his deportment, and the gentleness of his
speech. Instead of provoking his opponents, and answering back, as was
to be expected of him, he was conciliating and forbearing.

A case finally arose, of unusual importance in the domestic tribunals;
it attracted much attention, helped to bring him forward in a small
way, and gained him much reputation among some persons whose esteem
was enviable.

Old man Cole, "Old King Cole," as the boys derisively called him, an
inoffensive little man, with a weak, limp woman for a wife, and three
or four weaker and limper children, had for many years vegetated on
one corner of an hundred-and-sixty acres of woods, having made but
a small clearing, and managed in some unknown way to live on it. His
feeble condition exposed him to imposition, and he was the butt for
the unthinking, and victim of the unscrupulous and unruly. For some
years his land, a valuable tract, had been coveted by several greedy
men, and especially by one Sam Ward. Failing to induce Cole to sell
what right it was admitted he had, Ward, as was supposed, attempted
to intimidate, and finally to annoy Cole to such an extent, that for
peace and safety he would willingly part with his possession. He was
one of the earliest settlers, had become attached to his land, and
declined to be driv