Jays and Crows 177 



charge that the Jay is a notorious nest robber and 

 devourer of the helpless young of other birds. 

 As this is a case based upon general suspicion 

 rather than a specific act it will turn upon prov- 

 ing the previous good character of the defendant, 

 if that is possible. Now, if His Honor will order 

 me sworn I will take the witness stand on be- 

 half of my client, who has been a close friend of 

 mine for the last fifty years. Fifty years, Gen- 

 tlemen of the Jury, is a long time and a man and 

 a bird ought to get to know something of each 

 other in such a period, and had I not flattered my- 

 self that I know him better than most people I 

 would not have volunteered to act as his attorney 

 in this case. Certainly I will not stand by and 

 see him wronged, for I can say of him, what I 

 cannot say of all my friends, that up to date I 

 never knew him to do anything unworthy of a 

 gentleman and a scholar. 



Our acquaintance started on a cold day and it 

 has been getting warmer and warmer ever since. 

 I saw him as the only bit of blue on a gray winter 

 day and he scolded and laughed at me by turns, 

 from a limb of the "tip-top" wood that consti- 

 tuted our first wood-pile and made me ashamed 

 to cry with the cold, after a thirty mile ride, as I 

 carried in my first armful to start the first fire 

 in my father's log-cabin that stood for a home 

 in the wilderness. Always regarding him as a 



