“That isn’t all of it,” said the cobbler, with a maudlin wink at his visitor.  “I don’t know when I’ll have it finished, if I keep on feelin’ as I do now.  It’s pretty tough, too, bekase that shoe belongs to Mrs. Judge Prency, an’ she’s comin’ for it this afternoon; but I’m that sleepy that—­” Larry’s head gently sought the wall again.

“An’ a very good woman she is, Larry.  Brace up, my boy, why don’t you, an’ finish your work?”

“Eh?  Say ‘Brace up’ to somebody that’s not got anythin’ in him to brace him down.  She kin wait for her shoe while I’m havin’ my aise an’ forgettin’ all about work.”

“When did you promise the shoe to her?” asked Sam.

“Oh, sometime this afternoon,” said Larry, “an’ she hasn’t come in here yet.  Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, ye know the good book says, Sam.  Maybe she won’t come in till to-morrow; she’s a busy woman; nobody knows where she’s goin’ or what she’s doin’ throughout the day, an’, to tell ye the truth, I thought to myself I’d shut up the shop an’ go home, so if she came there’d not be anybody here to tell a loie about it.”

“Well, Larry, wouldn’t it do just as well if there was somebody here to tell the truth about it?”

“Oh, there, now, Sam,” said the shoemaker, rallying himself for an instant; “they tould me that you was converted in jail, an’ that sounds a good deal like it.  Now, Sam, I want to tell ye if ye want to argy on the subject of the truth, or any other of the moral sintiments, with any man whatsoever, ye don’t want to come to a shoemaker’s shop an’ find a fellow who’s just had three drinks in him at somebody else’s expense.  Now go ’way; come ‘round here to-morrow when I’m sober, an’ I’ll own up to everything you say, no matter what it is.”

“That won’t get Mrs. Prency her shoes,” said Sam.  “Go home an’ go to bed, an’ let me finish that shoe in your hand, an’ if she comes here it’ll be ready for her, an’ if she don’t you won’t have anything on your conscience,—­not so far as she’s concerned.”

The cobbler took possession of himself with a tremendous effort, and looked sharply from his bleared eyes for an instant as he said,—­

“An’ what do you know about shoemakin’?”

“As much as two years in State prison could learn me, Larry; though I don’t think you need to have asked me.”

“It’s all right, me boy; I take it back; an’ if ever I’m sent to State prison myself you may ask it of me ten times over; that’s the Bible rule, I belave.  Now I’ll go home to my wife an’ family, an’ if you choose to finish that shoe an’ stay here until Mrs. Judge Prency comes in to get it, why, you’re quite welcome to do the work an’ keep the pay; I tould her fifty cints.”

Sam began work upon the bit of repairing which he had taken from the shoemaker’s hands, and although it was not of the routine nature which all of his jail-work had placed in his hands, he knew enough of the requirements of an ordinary shoe to do what was necessary.  While he was working, the room suddenly darkened, and as he looked up he saw Mrs. Judge Prency herself.