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There was some slight cheering among the audience when the petition went back to the table. The judge of the court rapped for silence.

"Quiet! Quiet! Now, gentlemen of the court, le's git to work on somethin' we know somethin' about. Mr. Clerk, what's nex' on docket?"

Railroad Jones broke the pause. In his buzzing voice he began explaining that his friend Jim Sandage had raised a boy on the county poor farm until now the boy was seventeen turning eighteen, and he thought the time had come to set him free; and that he, David Jones, was going to ask the court, for Mr. Sandage, to set Mr. Abner Teeftallow free and give him all the contractual rights of a man of twenty-one so he could hire to work and receive pay, sue and be sued, like any other man. The reason of this, Jones explained, was that he wanted to hire Abner to work on his railroad, and that if it met with the court's approval the clerk could draw up a paper to that effect and have it passed.

"It is right and fitting," explained the magnate in conclusion, "that this young man whose grandfather was circuit judge in this county should come out an' help build a railroad as his first lick of work as a man that would help develop the county his grandfather started."

There was some cheering at this which the judge had to rap down.

Abner looked at Railroad Jones in the greatest consternation at this amazing turn of the game. The magnate nodded back encouragingly.

"That's all right. It stops all school action complete. It gits Jim here out of a mean fix, an', young man, it puts you where you can begin to make two dollars an' a half a day an' be your own boss. The fewcher certainly looks bright fer you, my boy; you with a brain unspiled by book learnin', a judge fer a grandfather an' a crazy woman for a mammy."

He reached a puffy hand and clapped Abner warmly on the shoulder.