silences of good country-bred men listening back through the soft
cadences of memory, the case was won that night. I think it was
Jock's song that did it. You never hear it sung by concert singers;
because it has no theatricalism in it. It's just the wailing of the
faith of the country lass in her lover:

'When the shades of evenin' creep
O'er the day's fair, gladsome e'e
Sound and safely may he sleep,
Sweetly blithe his waukenin' be.
He will think on her he loves,
Fondly he'll repeat her name,
For, where'er he distant roves,
Jockey's heart is still at hame.'

If you listen right close you'll hear the hiss of the kettle behind
it, and you can see the glow of the firelight and smell the sap of
green wood in the smoke.

Well, there were continuances; of course. It is never
constitutional to throw a case of politics out of court too soon.
We made that four hundred-mile round trip four times and, every
time, Burns sat at night where Blackstone ruled by day. Never one
word of the case from judge to accused, just continuances. But on
the last night--the case was to be pressed next day--the judge said
to Allison at the door, as he went off to bed:

"I think you will be before me in a case tomorrow. If the worst
comes and you demand your right to address the jury, the court will
sustain you. And I advise you give 'em 'Jockey's Ta'en the Parting
Kiss'--_and no more_. I know the jury."

But the case was dismissed; we were serenaded at the hotel and held
a reception. Driving away in a buggy over the fourteen miles to the
railway station, Allison said: "There never was a prettier
summer-time jail anywhere in the world than this one. I've been
down to see it. It has vines growing over the low, white-washed
walls, there's apple trees in the yard and the jailer has a curly
headed little girl of six who would bring 'em to you and could slip
'em through the barred window by standing on the split bottom chair
where her father sleeps in the shade after dinner. It's a beautiful
picture--but it hasn't got a single damned modern convenience for
winter and a six months' term would have landed me there till
January!"

I shall always believe this to be the most graceful, sympathetic and poetic
relation involving a legal case I ever heard and never wil