The only
dramatic incident in the testimony was the putting the two little
Dooleys (who had returned in fat and rosy condition, the day before) on
the stand.
"Did you find country milk different from what you have here?" Peter
asked the youngest.
"Oh, yes," she said. "Here it comes from a cart, but in the country it
squirts from a cow."
"Order," said the judge to the gallery.
"Does it taste differently?"
"Yes. It's sweet, as if they put sugar in it. It's lovely I like cow
milk better than cart milk."
"Damn those children!" said Dummer, to the man next him.
The event of the trial came, however, when Peter summed up. He spoke
quietly, in the simplest language, using few adjectives and no
invective. But as the girl at the Pierces' dinner had said, "he
describes things so that one sees them." He told of the fever-stricken
cows, and he told of the little fever-stricken children in such a way
that the audience sobbed; his clients almost had to be ordered out of
court; the man next Dummer mopped his eyes with his handkerchief; the
judge and jury thoughtfully covered their eyes (so as to think the
better); the reporters found difficulty (owing to the glary light), in
writing the words despite their determination not to miss one; and even
the prisoner wiped his eyes on his sleeve.
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