I'd rather have been the dyin' thief on the cross than
said what I said in that church that night, but I was asked to do it,
an' the more I thought about it the more I thought I couldn't say no.
But I didn't know what else to say."
"You did quite right, Mr. Kimper: you spoke like a real, true, honest
man. If it's any comfort to know it, I can tell you that my husband,
the judge, thinks as I do. I told him what you said,--I remembered it
all, word for word,--and he said to me,--these are exactly his
words,--'I believe that is an honest man, and that he is going to
remain an honest man.'"
Sam bent over the shoe a little closer, and said, in a faint voice, as
if he were talking to himself,--
"What Judge Prency says about human natur ort to be true. If there's
any other man in this county that's had more opportunities of knowin'
all about it, I don't know who he can be."
There was silence for a moment or two. Sam quickened his labors upon
the shoe, and the lady bent her gaze closely upon the shoemaker. At
last she said,--
"Mr. Kimper, don't mistake the meaning of what I am going to ask you. I
am a member of the church, myself, and I have as hearty an interest in
you and sympathy for you as the best friend you have. But I want to ask
you one thing, merely out of curiosity.
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