"Now, your honors, you hear this," Mr. Wakefield said. "Now I am
about to place in the witness box a very respectable woman, one Jane
Tytler, who is cook to our esteemed fellow townsman, Mr. Samuel
Hawkins, whose residence is, as you know, not far from this school.
She will tell you that, having for some time been plagued by a
thieving cat which was in the habit of getting into her larder and
carrying off portions of food, she, finding it one day there in
the act of stealing a half chicken, fell upon it with a broomstick
and killed it, or as she thought killed it, and I imagine most
cooks would have acted the same under the circumstances.

"She thought no more about it until she heard the reports in
the town about this business at the school, and then she told her
master. The dates have been compared, and it is found that she
battered this cat on the evening before the Hathorn cat was found
dead in the yard. Furthermore, the cat she battered was a white cat
with a black spot on one side, and this is the exact description
of the Hathorn cat; therefore, your honors, you will see that the
assumption, or pretense, or excuse, call it what you will, by which
this man justifies his tyrannical treatment of these unfortunate
boys has no base or foundation whatever. You can go now, Mr. Hathorn;
I have nothing further to say to you."

A loud hiss rose again from the crowded court as the schoolmaster
stepped down from the witness box, and Jane Tytler took his place.
After giving her evidence she was succeeded by Dick Tompkins in
much trepidation. Dick was a most unwilling witness, but he produced
the notebook in which he had daily jotted down the number of boys
caned, and swore to the general accuracy of the figures.