half past ten a.m.
How true it is that , from the Bible down to Josiah Allen 's Wife , you have to talk in stories in order to impress the masses ! You have to hold up the hammer of a personal incident to drive home the nail of Truth and have it clench and hold fast . But mine wuz some different -- mine wuz facts , every one of 'em . I could have brung them to that man and laid 'em down in front of him from that time , almost half past ten a.m. , and kep stiddy at it till ten p.m. , and then not know that I had took any from the heap , so high and lofty is the stack of injustices and wrongs committed in the name of the Law and shielded by its mantilly . But I had only brung up two , jest two of 'em ; not the most flagrant ones either , but the first ones that come into my mind , jest as it is when you go to a pile of potatoes to git some for dinner , you take the first ones you come to , knowin ' there is fur bigger ones in the pile . But them potatoes smashed up with cream and butter are jest as satisfyin ' as if they wuz bigger . So these little truthful incidents laid down in front of my pardner convinced him ; so they wuz jest as good for me to use as if I had picked out bigger and more flagranter ones .