came not back to their places. They were forgotten, save once a year,
upon Decoration Day, when Judge Bradley made eloquent tribute above
their graves. Upon such times Judge Bradley always shed tears, and
always alluded to the tears with pride. Indeed, his lachrymal ability
was something of which he had much right to be proud, it being well
known in the legal profession that one's fees are in direct proportion
to his ability to weep. Judge Bradley could always weep at the right
time before a Jury, and this facility won him many a case. Through no
idle whim had public sentiment, even after the incident of the
substitute, confirmed him in his position as the leading lawyer of
Bloomsbury.

It was therefore predetermined that Edward Franklin should go into the
office of Judge Bradley to begin his law studies, after he had decided
that the profession of the law was the one likely to offer him the best
career. In making his decision, Franklin was actuated precisely as are
many young men who question themselves regarding their career. He saw
the average results of the lives of others in a given calling, and
conceived, without consulting in most jealous scrutiny his own natural
fitnesses and preferences, that he might well succeed in that calling
because he saw others so succeeding. Already there were two dozen
lawyers in Bloomsbury, and it was to be questioned whether they all did
so well as had Judge Bradley in the hog-stealing epoch of the local
history. Yet it was necessary for him to take up something by way of
occupation, and it resolved itself somewhat into a matter of
cancellation. For the profession of medicine he had a horror, grounded
upon scenes of contract surgery upon the fields of battle. The
ministry he set aside. From commerce, as he had always seen it in his
native town, twelve hours a day of haggling and smirking, he shrank
with all the impulses of his soul. The abject country newspaper gave