I showed them to him, and quietly
told him that I would do that work no longer. He told me that I must do
it; he would make me do it. I answered that he might kill me, or punish
me in any way he pleased, but he could not make me do that kind of
labor, and I threw down my hammer and refused to work a moment longer.

The Warden left me and sent Deputy Warden Morey to try me. He approached
me in a kindly way, and I showed my blistered hands to him. He thought
that was the way to "toughen" me. I thought not, and said so, and,
moreover, told him I would never make another heel ring in that prison,
and I never did.

He sent me to my cell and I stayed there a week, till my hands were
well. Then the Deputy came to me and asked me if I was willing to learn
to hew out scythe snaths in the rough for the shavers, who finished
them? I said I would try. I went into the shop and was shown how the
work was to be done. Every man was expected to hew out fifty snaths in a
day. In three or four days the shop-keeper came and overlooked me while
I was working in my bungling way, and said if I couldn't do better than
that I must clear out of his shop and do something else. My reply was
that I did not understand the business, and had no desire or intention
to learn it. He sent for the Deputy Warden, who came and expressed
the opinion that I could not do anything. I said I was willing to do
anything I could understand.

"Do you understand anything?" asked the Deputy.

"Well, some things, marrying for instance," was my answer.

"I want no joking or blackguardism about this matter," said the Deputy;
"them simple fact is, you've got to work; if you don't we'll make you."

So I kept on at hewing, making no improvement, and in a day or two
more the shopkeeper undertook to show me how the work should be done. I
protested I never could learn it.

"You don't try; and I have a good mind to punish you."

The moment the shop-keeper said it I dropped the snath, raised my
axe, and told him that if he came one step nearer to me I would make
mincemeat of him. He thought it was advisable to stay where he was; but
one of the prison-keepers was in the shop, and as he came toward me I
warned him that he had better keep away.

All the men in the shop were ready to break out in insubordination; when
I threatened the shop keeper and the guard, they cheered; the Deputy
Warden was soon on the ground; he stood in the doorway a moment, and
then, in a kind ton