Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock
page 127 of 213 (59%)
Mariposa House all evening when the other boys had to stay at home
and study.

Such a powerful looking fellow, too! Everybody in Mariposa remembers
how Neil Pepperleigh smashed in the face of Peter McGinnis, the
Liberal organizer, at the big election--you recall it--when the old
Macdonald Government went out. Judge Pepperleigh had to try him for
it the next morning--his own son. They say there never was such a
scene even in the Mariposa court. There was, I believe, something
like it on a smaller scale in Roman history, but it wasn't half as
dramatic. I remember Judge Pepperleigh leaning forward to pass the
sentence,--for a judge is bound, you know, by his oath,--and how
grave he looked and yet so proud and happy, like a man doing his duty
and sustained by it, and he said:

"My boy, you are innocent. You smashed in Peter McGinnis's face, but
you did it without criminal intent. You put a face on him, by
Jehoshaphat! that he won't lose for six months, but you did it
without evil purpose or malign design. My boy, look up! Give me your
hand! You leave this court without a stain upon your name."

They said it was one of the most moving scenes ever enacted in the
Mariposa Court.


But the strangest thing is that if the judge had known what every one
else in Mariposa knew, it would have broken his heart. If he could
have seen Neil with the drunken flush on his face in the billiard
room of the Mariposa House,--if he had known, as every one else did,
that Neil was crazed with drink the night he struck the Liberal
DigitalOcean Referral Badge