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that was down, was sympathy; and the judge said it was so; so they cried

again. And when it was bedtime, the old man rose up and held out his

hand, and says: ssssssssss

"Look at it gentlemen, and ladies all; take ahold of it; shake it. There's

a hand that was the hand of a hog; but it ain't so no more; it's the hand

of a man that's started in on a new life, and 'll die before he'll go back. You

mark them words -- don't forget I said them. It's a clean hand now; shake

it -- don't be afeard." ssssssssss

So they shook it, one after the other, all around, and cried. The judge's

wife she kissed it. Then the old man he signed a pledge -- made his mark. The

judge said it was the holiest time on record, or something like that. Then

they tucked the old man into a beautiful room, which was the spare room, and

in the night sometime he got powerful thirsty and dumb out onto the porch-roof

and slid down a stanchion and traded his new coat for a jug of forty-rod, and

dumb back again and had a good old time; and towards daylight he crawled out

again, drunk as a fiddler, and rolled off the porch and broke his left arm in

two places and was most froze to death when somebody found him after sun-up.??

ssssssssss

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