Elithe dropped the dress, while Miss Hansford went forward, bristling with defiance, her “near-see’ers” on her forehead now instead of the end of her nose. Never before had a witness like her been seen upon the stand. She cared neither for law, nor order, nor judge, nor jury, and much less for the prosecuting attorney. “’Tain’t likely I shall tell anything but the truth. I ain’t in the habit of lying, like some folks I know,” she said, as she took the oath. All her words were jerked out with a vim which made the spectators smile in spite of themselves. When asked if she knew the prisoner, she answered, “I’d laugh if I didn’t. Seems to me I’d ask something more sensible than that and more to the point. You know I know him, and you, too!” Whether it was her derisive manner, or his nervousness in tackling her, or both, the next question was certainly not necessary under the circumstances, nor one he had intended asking her until it came into his mind suddenly. “How old are you, Miss Hansford?” If scorn could have annihilated him, the attorney would have been wiped out of existence, as Miss Hansford told him it was none of his business. “Not that I’m ashamed of my age,” she said. “Anybody can know it who cares to look in my family Bible, but it has nothing to do with this case. I’m old enough to be a legal witness. I knew you when you was a boy. If you are old enough to stand there asking me questions, I am old enough to answer correctly, and I hain’t softening of the brain, neither.” The boys in the gallery roared, the judge pounded for order, Sherry growled threateningly, and the discomfited attorney went on with the examination, asking, next, how long she had known the prisoner. “I’ve known Paul Ralston, if that’s who you mean by prisoner, ever since he was knee-high and wore knickerbockers. I knew Jack Percy, too. I believe he was a tolerably good man, or tryin’ to be, when he died, but he was about the worst boy the Lord ever made, and Paul was the best, and no more meant to kill Jack than you did,” was the reply. There were more laughs from the boys and a buzzing of amusement throughout the building, while Sherry growled and the judge again called to order and instructed the witness that she was to keep to the point,—to answer questions and not volunteer any testimony. He didn’t know Miss Hansford, who paid no more attention to him than if he had been a fly. In her estimation he was as bad as the attorney, and she went on: