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' told me to go ahead
an' do all them things just as well as I knowed how to, an' if I did
'em all well as far as I could I'd find out a good deal more in the
course of time."

"Go on," said the lawyer.

"I haven't anything to go on with, Mr. Bartram," said the cobbler,
"except that I took his advice, an' ain't ever been sorry for it, an' I
wish I'd got it a good deal sooner. I'm just the same old
two-an'-sixpence that I was before I went away. That is, I'm always
tired an' always poor an' always wishin' I didn't have to do any work.
But when there comes a time when I get a chance to do somethin' wrong