ain?"

"Yeh, that's like enough, yeh. I heard things have been said of his
mother by Adamson. Oh, yes, the news is out now--she couldn't hide it no
more now--there is the boy she said was dead. But, you know, after all,
my friend, a mother is a mother, and men is men. When they say things of
how we was born, you would fought, I hope? Me, I hope too. No man likes
to hear his mother called of names. And she is his mother. Too bad it
is--a bad business all around."

"But then--why, Nels, we know----"

"Yes, we all know," said Jorgens stolidly. "I know and you know, and we
all know. And what I know is this:--For twenty years she lives across
the street from me, as straight and as good a woman as anyone in this
town--each first day of the month right in my hand here she pays the
rent, not a month missed in twenty years. I rather rent a house to her
as to any business man in this town, and I say she is straight as any
woman in this town! No man goes there, not any more now in twenty years.
The man who meets her on the public street he takes his hat off--now.
Her boy--well, he looks citified to me, but at least he can fight. Yeh,
I vote he was in the right. Tomorrow my wife shall take some more eggs
to Aurora Lane in her house; yeh, and coffee."

There were two other members of the unpolled jury, and they paused now
in the full light which came from the mast at the corner of the public
square. Judge Henderson, wearied by the exertions of the evening, was
disposed to ascend the stair to his own office in search of a manner of
refreshment which he well knew he would find there. Turning in this
laudable enterprise he met face to face the city marshal, Old Man
Tarbush, who halted him for a moment's speech, drawing him apart to the
edge of the sidewalk.

"I just thought I'd ask you, Judge, since I see you," said Tarbush,
"whether you think I done right or not."

"What do you mean, Mr. Marshal," inquired the judge, none too happy at
being interrupted.

"You know how it was. He licked Old Man Adamson again right at the foot
of the stair, before the record of his trial was hardly dry on the
books. It was unlawful, of course. I didn't arrest him no more, because
I seen what had happened in the other trial. You pulled out of that. I
didn't want to make no needless expense for the county. But I been sort
of uneasy in my mind about it, and I just thought I'd ask you."

"Exactly, exactly," rejoined Judge Henderson. "Well, now, Tar