at the foot of every ungodly slope on earth. I was facing ruin. I had
only one chance to save myself, and that was to gamble big on wheat.
To do it I actually stole some money out of a bank run by a friend of
mine. It's awful to think about, but I did it. I was found out. I was
accused and arrested. I was tried and found guilty. Lord, Lord, I
shall never forget that day! My mother and father were in the
courtroom. She fainted dead away, and an eternal blight fell on his
white head.

"I was sent to prison. My hair was clipped, and I was put in stripes
and steel shackles. All hell was packed in me. Instead of being
conquered, as most convicts are, I kept swearing that I was innocent.
I'd lie awake at night in my cell concocting lie after lie to bolster
up my case and stir up sympathy. I wrote letters to my home papers.
While I was clanking along by my fellow-prisoners who were taking
their medicine like men I was hating the whole of creation and
studying devilish ways to fight.

"I got to writing to the Governor of the State. I had heard he was
kind-hearted, and I thought I might make him believe I was innocent,
so I wrote letter after letter to him. I used every pretext I could
think of. Once I told him that I hoped God would strike me dead in my
tracks and damn me eternally if I had not been falsely imprisoned. Now
and then he would answer, in a kind sort of way, and that made me
think I might convince him if I kept up my letters.

"I was that sort of a fiend for a year. Then a strange thing happened.
A little, mild-mannered man was put in for murder. He had the cell
adjoining mine. He wasn't like any other prisoner I'd ever seen. He
had a sad, patient face, and didn't look at all strong. I took to him