After the jury had taken their seats he said blandly, mechanically: "Gentlemen, we are ready for your verdict." Harold knew the foreman very well.

He was a carpenter and joiner in whose shop he had often played--a big, bluff, good-hearted man whom any public speaking appalled, and who stammered badly as he read from a little slip of paper: "Guilty of assault with intent to commit great bodily injury, but recommended to the mercy of the judge." Then, with one hand in his breeches pocket, he added: "Be easy on him, judge; I believe I'd 'a' done the same." The spectators tittered at his abrupt change of tone, and some of the young people applauded.

He sat down very hot and red.
The judge did not smile or frown; his expressionless face seemed more like a mask than ever.

When he began to speak it was as though he were reading something writ in huge letters on a distant wall.
"The Court is quite sensible of the extenuating circumstances attending this sad case, but there are far-reaching considerations which the Court can not forget.

Here is a youth of good family, who elects to take up a life filled with mischief from the start.