can't answer that."

"Why?"

"Well, I love treasure, that is I love to find it--but I'm not livin'
over Tom Sawyer's life any more than is natural."

"But it is true that you deceived your father, it is true you ran away,
it is true you meant to run away from the court--all this is true?"

"Yes, sir."

"And then all of a sudden you got this idea of duty?"

"Yes, sir--by reading 'Hamlet.'"

"'Hamlet'?"

"Yes, sir, he kept foolin' with his duty, and it taught me not to."

"Did your father tell you to say that?"

"No, sir."

"I thought the great example of Lincoln had influenced you?"

"It did."

"Have you read 'Hamlet'?"

"Yes, sir, I have."

"Did he live, too?"

"Yes, sir--everybody lives that was ever wrote about."

And so Major Abbott kept cross-questioning Mitch until Mitch's mouth got
dry and he had to have a glass of water. They handed it to him, and
Major Abbott stood there like a hunter trappin' an animal. He was so
cool and insultin' and kept comin' right after Mitch. Then he began
again:

"Did you ever hear of Lincoln running away?"

"No, sir."

"Or deceiving his father?"

"No, sir."

"Or his mother?"

"His mother was dead."

"Or neglecting his duty in any way?"

"No, sir, that's the reason his example is so good."

"Well, why didn't you follow it from the beginning?"

"I told you why--I don't pretend to be good like Linkern."

"You don't?"

"No, sir, sometimes I think I'm very bad."

"Don't you think you're very bad right now to come here and tell such a
story as this, after the State has closed its case, after all these
weeks?"

"No, sir."

"And you knew, too, Mitchie, that it was common talk here that Joe
Rainey tried to kill Temple Scott and shot at him first?"

"Yes, sir."

"And all the time you were keeping this to yourself for the sake of
treasure, and in order to have your own way, and run off?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you knew that your chum's father was elected here to enforce the
law, and that the guilty should be punished--all this you knew?"

"Yes, sir."

"And yet you did all that you did--all that you have told?"

"Yes, sir."

Well, then Major Abbott took another turn. He asked Mitch about the
tree, whether it was a cherry tree or an oak tree, and Mitch didn't
know. And he asked him how high up he was, and what the light was, and
whether anybody passing couldn't see him in the tree; and how tall the
woman was that put the pistol there, and how sh