"That has nothing to do with this business."
"I insist upon hearing an answer. Have you not obtained that name?"
"I am sometimes called so."
"Now, Dick, as you admit you are so called, do you know the story of the hare and the ball of wax?"
"I have heard it."
"Then pray have the goodness to relate it to the judge and the jury."
"I do not exactly remember it."
"Then I will refresh your memory by relating it myself. Dick Strother was a cobbler, and being in want of a hare for a friend, he put in his pocket a ball of wax and took a walk into the fields, where he soon espied one. Dick then very dexterously threw the ball of wax at her head, where it stuck, which so alarmed poor puss that in the violence of her haste she ran in contact with the head of another; both stuck fast together, and Dick, lucky Dick! caught both. Dick obtained great celebrity by telling this wondrous feat, which he always affirmed as a truth, and from that every notorious liar in Thorner bears the title of Dick Strother. Now, Dick—I mean John—is not that the reason why you are called Dick Strother?"
"It may be so."
"Then you may go."