"Yes; I do," said the parson; "or something just as bad."
"I'd like to know how you make that out," put in Jones Bradley. "I had a good old mother once, and a father now dead and gone. I own I'm bad enough myself, but no argument of yours parson, or any body else's can make me believe that they were thieves and murderers."
"I don't mean to be personal," said the parson, "your father and mother may have been angels for all I know, but I'll undertake to show that all the rest of the world, lawyers, doctors and all, are a set of thieves and murderers, or something just as bad."
"Well Parson, s'pose you put the stopper on there," shouted one of the men; "if you can sing a song, or spin a yarn, it's all right; but this ain't a church, and we don't want to listen to one of your long-winded sermons tonight."
"Amen!" came from the voices of nearly all present.
The Parson thus rebuked, was fain to hold his peace for the rest of the evening.
After a pause of a few moments, one of the men reminded Captain Flint, that he had promised to inform them how he came to adopt their honorable calling as a profession.
"Well," said the captain, "I suppose I might as well do it now, as at any other time; and if no one else has anything better to offer, I'll commence; and to begin at the beginning, I was born in London. About my schooling and bringing up, I haven't much to say, as an account of it would only be a bore.
"My father was a merchant and although I suppose one ought not to speak disrespectfully of one's father, he was, I must say, as gripping, and tight-fisted a man as ever walked the earth.
"I once heard a man say, he would part with anything he had on earth for money, but his wife. My father, I believe, would have not only parted with his wife and children for money, but himself too, if he had thought he should profit by the bargain.