Witness.--"I always wound it up o' Saturday, at about eleven, when I had put the pot on; and I generally set it to rights by the church, if I could hear it, that we might not be late at service the next day."
Counsel.--"And if you did not set it on Saturday, did you ever meddle with it during the week?"
Witness.--"Not that I remember ever. I did the two jobs together; for I had to get up upon the stool, which I was not over fond of, for the stool was old, and I was old; and if we had tumbled we might both have gone to pieces."
All the bar laughed heartily, and encouraged the good old woman amazingly: but the great barrister did not forget his point.
Counsel.--"Am I to understand you, that if you did not set the clock on Saturday, you did not set it during the week?"
Witness.--"No, never."
"Then can you tell me if you set it on the Saturday before the prisoner returned?" asked the counsel.
Witness.--"I can't justly recollect."
Counsel.--"Well, it got on two or three minutes a-day, you say; so if you did set it on Saturday, the thirty-first of January, it would have got on from ten to twelve minutes, at the least, and might have done so a quarter-of-an-hour, before the evening of Thursday, the fifth; which would make your other calculation right, that the prisoner returned about half-past four, by the church clock, remained a quarter-of-an-hour or twenty minutes, and went away at five by the cuckoo, or a quarter to five by the church."
"That is likely," said the witness; "I dare say our clock was a quarter too fast--it generally was. It was quite light, I know, when he went away."