and seek to destroy."

Then he drew an awful picture of the gallows and the penitentiary, and
said, "Think of it. To be choked to death on the gallows. To be for
years behind prison bars; or to go home to your old father and mother
and be blessed, and be a blessing and get back your good name."

The jury cried, everybody nearly cried--everybody but Mitch who was
sittin' by me. Mitch says: "He's the dandiest liar I ever heard. I
almost admire him."

Then my pa got up and of all the speeches you ever heard! The shivers
just ran up and down my back. And in about five minutes he had that jury
so you could knock their eyes off with a stick. He had 'em right in his
hand. And he said:

"You dare to disbelieve this boy--you dare to! What does it mean? Harold
Carman ran away. But where are the others? Echo answers where. Major
Abbott stands up here and says that he doesn't know their names, that if
Harold Carman hadn't gone away, he'd know their names, and he gets
before the jury, as if he were testifying, the fact that Harold Carman
is away and what he would say if he were here. He slips that in; and
it's improper and he knows it. He may be a good lawyer, and he is, but
he isn't a witness in this case. And suppose you accept his word and
this story--what do you say? You say that in this community--call it the
community of Lincoln or of the devil, there are people so low, so
murderous in their hearts, that they will allow a fellow being to be
prosecuted and never come forward to tell what they know, which if they
told it, would clear Temple Scott before this jury on the spot. And that
isn't all, if you accept this story, you say that I haven't done my
duty; you say that the man you elected to enforce the law will use his
power to pervert the law; will fail to get all the facts before the
jury. Because you couldn't imagine that there are such witnesses who
came out looking for a pistol and I wouldn't have heard it and known
about it. And if I did, and didn't get them, I wouldn't be fit to be
your State's Attorney, or to hold any position of trust whatever. Where
is Harold Carman? It doesn't make any difference where he is. Where are
the others? They're not in this town or any other town. They're not any
more in being than Tom Sawyer; but they are unlike Tom Sawyer, for as a
piece of fiction he is real; and as fiction, these people are unreal and
don't convince."

And then my pa said: "Now, let's take up the pistol. Both side