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with the meal bag, Norton with two books, and Railroad Jones empty-handed. An added discouragement was that Norton could never make much of a speech. He stuttered slightly. As a jury lawyer he was impossible, but a counsellor in chancery has little to say, and the chancellor will always wait patiently for that little no matter how retarded may be its utterance. However, the situation was not reassuring.

As Abner came up to the desk, the chancery judge looked down from his elevated seat and said to Norton, "Mr. Norton, does this young man's burden appertain to the cause you represent?"

"Your Honour," returned Norton, rising, "I—I th-think that is my client's b-b-burden of proof."

"It's to be hoped he can shift it to the plaintiff," said the chancellor with a serious smile.

The lawyers smiled, and the crowd followed their lead by tittering emptily at a jest which few comprehended and none would have considered humorous.

Railroad Jones whispered to Abner, "Set it down an' take a cheer," pointing at several unoccupied chairs at his table.

For several minutes Abner's bandaged head and hand drew more attention than the court preparations. His wounds were a sort of materialization of this suit; they were the result of the clash between bank and railroad. The youth sat with the meal sack leaning against his leg, looking about the crowded courthouse. The fact that so many persons were looking at him embarrassed him. He heard an old man saying in the flat voice of the deaf: "They say he flopped from his pap's side over to Railroad because he's gwinter marry his daughter."

Abner flushed. He saw his position might be interpreted thus and he wished he could explain to the audience how unavoidable was his course; but that was impossible.

The chancellor tapped on his desk, and as silence spread over the courtroom, he asked in a deliberate voice, "Is the case of the Irontown Bank versus David Jones ready for a hearing?"