“What shall I do with this fellow, Mr. Gregory?” asked Hiram.
“I'll go into the house and get a rope to tie him. Then we'll take him to the lock-up.”
“Let me go!” said the tramp, uneasily. “I was only joking.”
“You carried the joke too far, my friend,” said Hiram, significantly. “I'll take you round to the lock-up—by way of joke—and Judge Jones will sentence you to the penitentiary—just to help the joke along.”
“Let me go!” whined the tramp, now thoroughly subdued. “I am a poor man, and that's what led me to do wrong.”
“I suppose you never indulged in such a little joke before?”
“No; this is the first time.”
“Probably you are a church member when you are at home,” said Hiram, in a tone of sarcasm. “You're a good man gone wrong, ain't you?”
“Yes,” said the tramp.
“You look like it. Such good men as you are better off in jail.”