t; I don't know how I'm goin' to stan' that."

Mrs. Burnham, sitting by her counsel, bent her head above the table
and wept silently.

"Was your decision to disclose your knowledge reached with a fair
understanding of the probable result of such a disclosure?"

"Yes, sir, it was. I knew what the end of it'd be, an' I had a pirty
hard time to bring myself to it, but I done it, an' I'm glad now 'at
I did."

"Did you reach this decision alone or did some one help you to it?"

"Well, I'll tell you how that was. All't I decided in the first place
was to tell Uncle Billy,--he's the man't I live with. So I told him,
an' he said I ought to tell Mrs. Burnham right away. But she wasn't
home when I got to her house, so I started right down here; an' they
was an accident up on the road, an' the train couldn't go no further,
an' so I walked in--I was afraid I wouldn't get here in time 'less
I did."

"Your long walk accounts for your dusty and shoeless condition, I
suppose?"

"Yes, sir; it was pirty dusty an' hot, an' I had to walk a good ways,
an' my shoes hurt me so't I had to take 'em off, an' I didn't have
time to put 'em on again after I got here. Besides," continued the
boy, looking down apologetically at his bruised and dusty feet, "I
hurt my feet a-knockin' 'em against the stones when I was a-runnin',
an' they've got swelled up so 'at I don't believe I could git my shoes
on now, any way."

Many people in the room besides Mrs. Burnham had tears in their eyes
at the conclusion of this simple statement.

Then Ralph grew white about the lips and looked around him uneasily.
The judge saw that the lad was faint, and ordered a tipstaff to bring
him a glass of water. Ralph drank the water and it refreshed him.

"You may cross-examine the witness," said Goodlaw to the plaintiff's
attorney.

Sharpman hardly knew how to begin. But he felt that he must make an
effort to break in some way the force of Ralph's testimony. He knew
that from a strictly legal point of view, the evidence was of little
value, but he feared that the boy's apparent honesty, coupled with his
dramatic entrance, would create an impression on the minds of the jury
which might carry them to a disastrous verdict. He leaned back in his
chair with an assumed calmness, placed the tips of his fingers against
each other, and cast his eyes toward the ceiling.

"Ralph," he said, "you considered up to yesterday that Mr. Craft and I
were acting in your interest i