"That's neither here nor there," said the judge. "It is your business to have her at school every morning and to see that she submits to the regulations. You are an able-bodied woman and have an able-bodied husband. Why don't you move into a decent house in a decent neighborhood?" "There ain't nothin' the matter with our neighborhood. If you'd jes' git 'em to fix the house up some. The roof leaks something scandalous." "Who is your landlord?" "Well, they tell me _he_ is," said Mrs. Snawdor, pointing a malicious finger at Mr. Clarke. This _coup d'etat_ caused considerable diversion, and the judge had to call the court sharply to order. "Is that your husband in the rear of the room?" he asked Mrs. Snawdor. "Law, no; that's Mr. Burks, our boarder. I begged Snawdor to come, but he's bashful." "Well, Mr. Burks, will you step forward and tell us what you know of this little girl?" Uncle Jed cleared his throat, made a pass at the place where his front hair used to be, and came forward. "Have you known this child long?" asked the judge. "Eleven years, going on twelve," said Uncle Jed, with a twinkle in his small eyes, "me an' her grandpa fought side by side in the battle of Chickasaw Bluffs." "So she comes of fighting stock," said the judge. "Do you consider her incorrigible?" "Sir?" "Do you think her stepmother is able to control her?" Uncle Jed looked a trifle embarrassed. "Well, Mrs. Snawdor ain't whut you might say regular in her method. Sometimes she's kinder rough on Nance, and then again she's a heap sight too easy." "That's a God's truth!" Mrs. Snawdor agreed fervently from the rear. "Then you do not consider it altogether the child's fault?" "No, sir, I can't say as I do. She jes' gits the signals mixed sometimes, that's all." The judge smiled. "So you think if she understood the signals, she'd follow them?" Uncle Jed's face became very earnest as he laid his hand on Nance's head. "I believe if this here little lass was to once git it into her head that a thing was right, she'd do it if it landed her where it landed her paw, at the foot of a forty-foot embankment with a engine a-top of her." "That's a pretty good testimony to her character," said the judge. "It's our business, then, to see that she gets more definite instructions as to the traffic laws of life. Nance, you and Dan step up here again." The children stood before him, breathing hard, looking him straight in the face. "You have both been breaking the law. It's a serious thing to be up in court. It is usually the first step on the down grade. But I don't believe either of you have been wholly to blame. I am going to give you one more chance and put you both on probation to Mrs. Purdy, to whom you are to report once a week. Is Mrs. Purdy in the room?"