me, out and out. Don't be afraid to keep back anything. Take all
the time you like at it. If you can't say just what you want to, try to
put it as clearly as you can. I didn't come in to worry you. Remember
that I really want some distinct information on the subject."

Sam looked up keenly, and said, "Mr. Bartram, are you in earnest?"

"Sam Kimper," said the young lawyer, "if I were not in earnest do you
suppose I'd come into this shop during the business hours of the day
and ask questions of this kind, when there are plenty of other people I
could go to and get the information I want, and perhaps a good deal
more? No, sir; I have come here to ask you because I thought that
whatever you could say you would say in the fewest possible words and
say it right to the point."

"But, Mr. Bartram, I'm not used to talkin' to lawyers. I never talked
to any but once, you know, an' then I don't think they had very much
respect for what I said. I wasn't in a fix where anybody could have any
respect for me."

"This hasn't anything to do with those times, Sam," said the lawyer. "A
friend of yours, who is a friend of mine, has told me that you talked
very straightforward and honestly on this subject a few nights ago.
That's more than I have been able to find anybody do in this town in a
long time. I don't mind saying to you that, according to what the
people who are the most prominent in the church say, I'm a pretty hard
character. Therefore whatever you have to say you needn't be afraid to
put very plainly. I simply want to know about myself; that's all."

"Mr. Bartram," said the cobbler, "as I've already said, you had a good
deal better talked to somebody else. But, seem' you've come to me, I've
only this to say to you, an' I hope you can make somethin' out of it,
because I give you my word I've made more out of it than ever I did out
of anythin' else on the face of the earth. I went to jail for stealin'.
I hadn't ever been an honest man in my life. The only reason I hadn't
been in jail all my life was that I hadn't been caught. At last I was
caught, an' I was sent up, an' I don't mind sayin' that I think my
sentence was mighty light, considerin' all the heavy mischief that I'd
done durin' my life. While I was in jail I was talked to by a man that
used to come through there to talk to the prisoners on Sundays. An'
about all he said to me was to read me a lot o' things that Jesus
Christ said when He was alive in this world, an' t