Even
the habit of resting the hand on the Book is disappearing and in many
courts a Bible is hard to find.
The lady, in the confusion of appearing on a stage for the first time
and standing on a raised platform before an audience, holds up her
left hand. The court attendant jumps at her. The judge has seen the
same performance many times before and hardly notices the
_contretemps_. By this time she is confused and ruffled and after
hearing something murmured about the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, she sinks into the chair and begins in a very
uncomfortable frame of mind the ordeal of giving testimony.
What she wants to say, what she ought to say, what she was told to say
is all gone. The jury and the judge understand and feel sympathetic
but the rules of the court do not permit them to be polite, and to ask
her to take a more comfortable chair, to have some tea, whether the
children have had any after-effects of the measles, or to take off
her hat and stay a while. She knows she has to stay and that she is
not going to enjoy it.
She is the important witness who was riding in the car at the time it
crashed into the grocery wagon. She is honest, of average
intelligence, and wants to tell the truth.
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