CONTENTS
II. A BLENDING OF THE PARABLES
IV. A CHAPTER FROM THE LIFE OF AN ANT
V. SERGEANT JIMMY BAGBY'S FEET
VIII. DOUBLE-BARRELLED JUSTICE
THIS story begins with Judge Priest sitting at his desk at his chambers atthe old courthouse. I have a suspicion that it will end with him sittingthere. As to that small detail I cannot at this time be quite positive.Man proposes, but facts will have their way.
If so be you have read divers earlier tales of my telling you already knowthe setting for the opening scene here. You are to picture first the bigbare room, high-ceiled and square of shape, its plastering cracked andstained, its wall cases burdened with law books in splotched leatherjerkins; and some of the books stand straight and upright, showingthemselves to be confident of the rectitude of all statements madetherein, and some slant over sideways against their fellows to the rightor the left, as though craving confirmatory support for their contents.
Observe also the water bucket on the little shelf in the corner, with thegourd dipper hanging handily by; the art calendar, presented with thecompliments of the Langstock Lumber Company, tacked against the door; thespittoon on the floor; the steel engraving of President Davis and hisCabinet facing you as you enter; the two wide windows opening upon thewest side of the square; the woodwork, which is of white poplar, butgrained by old Mr. Kane, our leading house, sign and portrait painter,into what he reckoned to be a plausible imitation of the fibrillareccentricities of black walnut; and in the middle of all this, huncheddown behind his desk like a rifleman in a pit, is Judge Priest, in aconfusing muddle of broad, stooped shoulders, wrinkled garments and fatshort legs.
Summertime would have revealed him clad in linen, or alpaca, or amplegarments of homespun hemp, but this particular day, being a day in thelatter part of October, Judge Priest's limbs and body were clothed inwoollen coverings. The first grate fire of the season burned in his grate.There was a local superstition current to the effect that our courthousewas heated with steam. Years before, a bond issue to provide the requisitefunds for this purpose had been voted after much public discussion pro andcon. Thereafter, for a space, contractors and journeymen artisans madefree of the build