," said Forester, "by reversing
the condition of the parties. Suppose that you had been fishing, and a
large fish had come swimming about your hook, and that Jeremiah had then
come to put his hook in at the same place, should you have thought it
right?"

"Why, I don't know," said Marco.

"It is doubtful. Now, it is an excellent rule," continued Forester, "in
all questions of right between ourselves and other persons, for us to
give them _the benefit of the doubt_."

"What does that mean?" asked Marco.

"Why, if a man is tried in a court for any crime," replied Forester, "if
it is clearly proved that he is innocent, of course he goes free. If it
is clearly proved that he is guilty, he is convicted. But if neither the
one nor the other can be proved, that is, if it is doubtful whether he
is innocent or guilty, they give him the benefit of the doubt, as they
term it, and let him go free."

"I should think that, when it is doubtful," said Marco, "they ought to
send him back to prison again till they can find out certainly."

"No," said Forester, "the jury are directed to acquit him, unless it is
positively proved that he is guilty. So that, if they think it is
doubtful, they give him the benefit of the doubt, and let him go free.
Now, in all questions of property between ourselves and others, we
should all be willing to give to others the benefit of the doubt, and
then the disputes would be very easily settled, or rather, disputes
would never arise. In this case, for instance, it is doubtful whether
you had a right to come and interfere while the fish was near his hook;
it is doubtful whether he did or did not have a sort of right to try to
catch the fish, without your interfering; and you ought to have been
willing to have given him the benefit of the doubt, and so have staid
away, or have given up the fish to him after you had caught it."

"But I don't see," said Marco, "why he should not have been willing to
have given me the benefit of the doubt, as well as I to have given it to
him."

"Certainly," said Forester; "Jeremiah ought to have considered that
there was a doubt whether he was entitled to the fish or not, and to
have been willing to have given you the benefit of the doubt; and so
have let you kept the fish. Each, in such a case, ought to be willing to
give up to the other."

"And then which of us should have it?" asked Marco.

"Why, it generally happens," said Forester, in reply, "that only one of
t