He offered a short, spasmodic, disjointed prayer to heaven, for he remembered what the judge's wife had said, and he had known Reynolds Bartram as a young man of keen wit and high standing as a debater before Sam's enforced retirement; now, he knew, Bartram had become a lawyer.
"Well, Sam," said Bartram, as he seated himself in the only chair and proceeded to eye the new cobbler, while the blows of the hammer struck the sole more rapidly and vigorously than before,--"well, Sam, I understand that you have been turning things upside down, and instead of coming out of the penitentiary a great deal worse man than when you went in, as most other men do, you have been converted." "That's my understandin' of it, Mr.Bartram," said the ex-convict, continuing his inflictions upon the bit of leather.
"Sam," said Bartram, "I am a man of business, and I suppose you are from what I see you doing.

I wish to make you a proposition: I will pay you cash for two or three hours' time if you will tell me--so that I can understand it--what being converted really amounts to." The new cobbler did not cease an instant his attention to the work in his hand.

He merely said,-- "Mr.Bartram, you're a very smart man, an' I'm a very stupid one.

If there's a stupider man in town the Democratic local committee has never yet been able to find him.

You want to know what bein' converted means?
You'd better go to Deacon Quickset, or the minister of some one of the churches hereabouts.