y
voyage, and you 'll see half a dozen old shays to once-t, hitched all
along his fence of an arternoon, and wimmen inside the house, to git
Cap'n A. K. P. to take their boys. But you let Cap'n Thomas give out
that he wants boys, and he hez to glean 'em--from the poor-house, and
from step-mothers, and where he can: the women knows! Still," he added,
"Cap'n Thomas 's a good cap'n. I've nothin' to say ag'in him. He's
smart!"

"Gentlemen," said the foreman, when the officer, at last, had securely
locked them in, "shall we go through the formality of a ballot? If the
case were a less serious one, we might have rendered a verdict in our
seats."

"What's the use foolin' 'round ballotin'?" said a thick-set butcher.
"Ain't we all o' one mind?"

"It is for you to say, gentlemen," said the foreman. "I should n't want
to have it go abroad that we had not acted formally, if there was any
one disposed to cavil."

"Mr. Speaker," said George Washington, rising and standing in the
attitude of Webster, "I rises to appoint to order. We took ballast in de
prior cases, and why make flesh of one man an' a fowl of another?"

"Very well," said the foreman, a trifle sharply; "'the longest way round
is the shortest way home.'"

Twelve slips of paper were handed out, to be indorsed guilty,
"for form." They were collected in a hat and the foreman told them
over--"just for form." "'Guilty,' 'guilty,' 'guilty,' 'guilty,'--wait a
minute," he said, "here is a mistake. Here is one 'not guilty'--whose is
this?"

There was a pause.

"Whose is it?" said the foreman, sharply.

Eli turned a little red.

"It's mine," he said.

"Do you mean it?" said the foreman.

"Of course I mean it," he answered.

"Whew!" whistled the foreman. "Very well, sir; we'll have an
understanding, then. This case is proved to the satisfaction of every
man who heard it, I may safely say, but one. Will that one please state
the grounds of his opinion?"

"I ain't no talker," said Eli, "but I ain't satisfied he 's
guilty--that's all."

"Don't you believe the witnesses?"

"Mostly."

"Which one don't you believe?"

"I can't say. I don't believe he's guilty."

"Is there one that you think lied?"

No answer.

"Now it seems to me--" said a third juryman.

"One thing at a time, gentlemen," said the foreman. "Let us wait for
an answer from Mr. Smith. Is there any one that you think lied? We will
wait, gentlemen, for an answer."

There was a long pause. The