the Judge, easy and thoughtful, "what do you mean by
principle?"

"I didn't think you'd quibble," flashed Molly. "I'm not a lawyer
myself."

A man less wise than Judge Henry would have smiled at this, and then war
would have exploded hopelessly between them, and harm been added to what
was going wrong already. But the Judge knew that he must give to every
word that the girl said now his perfect consideration.

"I don't mean to quibble," he assured her. "I know the trick of escaping
from one question by asking another. But I don't want to escape from
anything you hold me to answer. If you can show me that I am wrong, I
want you to do so. But," and here the Judge smiled, "I want you to play
fair, too."

"And how am I not?"

"I want you to be just as willing to be put right by me as I am to be
put right by you. And so when you use such a word as principle, you
must help me to answer by saying what principle you mean. For in all
sincerity I see no likeness in principle whatever between burning
Southern negroes in public and hanging Wyoming horse-thieves in private.
I consider the burning a proof that the South is semi-barbarous, and the
hanging a proof that Wyoming is determined to become civilized. We
do not torture our criminals when we lynch them. We do not invite
spectators to enjoy their death agony. We put no such hideous disgrace
upon the United States. We execute our criminals by the swiftest means,
and in the quietest way. Do you think the principle is the same?"

Molly had listened to him with attention. "The way is different," she
admitted.

"Only the way?"

"So it seems to me. Both defy law and order."

"Ah, but do they both? Now we're getting near the principle."

"Why, yes. Ordinary citizens take the law in their own hands."

"The principle at last!" exclaimed the Judge.

"Now tell me some more things. Out of whose hands do they take the law?"

"The court's."

"What made the courts?"

"I don't understand."

"How did there come to be any courts?"

"The Constitution."

"How did there come to be any Constitution? Who made it?"

"The delegates, I suppose."

"Who made the delegates?"

"I suppose they were elected, or appointed, or something.

"And who elected them?"

"Of course the people elected them."

"Call them the ordinary citizens," said the Judge. "I like your term.
They are where the law comes from, you see. For they chose the delegates
who made the Constitution that provid