crowd of live, dirty human devils.

"And when, half dead from her dreadful life, she ran away at the peril
of her life, and wuz taken in by a charitable woman, and nursed back to
life and sanity agin.

"The law took that baby out of that safe refuge, and give her back into
the hands of her brutal master--took her back, knowin' the life she
would be compelled to lead.

"Think if it wuz our Tirzah Ann, Josiah Allen!"

"Dum the dum fools!" sez he, a chokin' some, and then he pulled out his
bandanna handkerchief and busted right out a-cryin' onto it.

[Illustration: "Dum 'em, I say!"]

"Dum 'em, I say!" sez he, out of its red and yeller depths. "I'd love to
skin the hull on 'em, Judge and Jury."

And I sez meanin'ly, "Now, do you want to go and be intimate with them
law-makers, Josiah Allen?"

"No," sez he, a-wipin' his eyes and a-lookin' mad, "no, I don't! I want
sunthin' to eat!"

And I riz up imegatly, and got a good dinner--a extra good one. And he
never said another word about goin' to Washington, D.C.