He thought he saw his way through.  The next day he whispered around a little among his clients and a few friends, and then when the case came up in court he acknowledged the seven-up and the betting, and, as his sole defense, had the astounding effrontery to put in the plea that old sledge was not a game of chance!  There was the broadest sort of a smile all over the faces of that sophisticated audience.  The judge smiled with the rest.  But Sturgis maintained a countenance whose earnestness was even severe.  The opposite counsel tried to ridicule him out of his position, and did not succeed.  The judge jested in a ponderous judicial way about the thing, but did not move him.  The matter was becoming grave.  The judge lost a little of his patience, and said the joke had gone far enough.  Jim Sturgis said he knew of no joke in the matter—­his clients could not be punished for indulging in what some people chose to consider a game of chance until it was proven that it was a game of chance.  Judge and counsel said that would be an easy matter, and forthwith called Deacons Job, Peters, Burke, and Johnson, and Dominies Wirt and Miggles, to testify; and they unanimously and with strong feeling put down the legal quibble of Sturgis by pronouncing that old sledge was a game of chance.

“What do you call it now?” said the judge.

“I call it a game of science!” retorted Sturgis; “and I’ll prove it, too!”

They saw his little game.

He brought in a cloud of witnesses, and produced an overwhelming mass of testimony, to show that old sledge was not a game of chance but a game of science.

Instead of being the simplest case in the world, it had somehow turned out to be an excessively knotty one.  The judge scratched his head over it awhile, and said there was no way of coming to a determination, because just as many men could be brought into court who would testify on one side as could be found to testify on the other.  But he said he was willing to do the fair thing by all parties, and would act upon any suggestion Mr. Sturgis would make for the solution of the difficulty.

Mr. Sturgis was on his feet in a second.

“Impanel a jury of six of each, Luck versus Science.  Give them candles and a couple of decks of cards.  Send them into the jury-room, and just abide by the result!”

There was no disputing the fairness of the proposition.  The four deacons and the two dominies were sworn in as the “chance” jurymen, and six inveterate old seven-up professors were chosen to represent the “science” side of the issue.  They retired to the jury-room.

In about two hours Deacon Peters sent into court to borrow three dollars from a friend. [Sensation.] In about two hours more Dominie Miggles sent into court to borrow a “stake” from a friend. [Sensation.] During the next three or four hours the other dominie and the other deacons sent into court for small loans.  And still the packed audience waited, for it was a prodigious occasion in Bull’s Corners, and one in which every father of a family was necessarily interested.