He leaned on me more than any other man, Solomon--" "I've heard he stood up pretty straight," said Mahaffy affably.
The judge's abandoned conduct distressed him not a little, but his remonstrances had been in vain.
"I consider that when society subjected me to the indignity of arrest, I was relieved of all responsibility.

Injustice must bear its own fruit," the judge had answered him sternly.
His beginnings had been modest enough: a few ears of corn, a few hills of potatoes, and the like, had satisfied him; then one night he appeared in camp with two streaks of scarlet down the side of his face.
"Are you hurt, Price ?" demanded Mahaffy, betraying an anxiety of which he was instantly ashamed.
"Let me relieve your apprehension, Solomon; it's only a trickle of stewed fruit.

I folded a couple of pies and put them in the crown of my hat," explained the judge.
"You mean you've been in somebody's springhouse ?" "It was unlocked, Solomon, This will be a warning to the owner.

I consider I have done him a kindness." Thus launched on a career of plunder, the judge very speedily accumulated a water bucket--useful when one wished to milk a cow--an ax from a woodpile, a kettle from a summer kitchen, a tin of soft soap, and an excellent blanket from a wash-line.
"For the boy, Solomon," he said gently, when he caught Mahaffy's steady disapproving glance fixed upon him as he displayed this last trophy.
"What sort of an example are you setting him ?" "The world is full of examples I'd not recommend, Solomon.

One must learn to discriminate.