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 Price 
 
(Xu, ''(U- iZ<^^^&f\i 
 
 
 i^^U,<^f^C^ tw^-**.-^^ 
 
 
 liOYE AND ©OLiinilGS. 
 
 \ .'.' 
 
 
 ^_ 
 
 i 
 
 
 Price 40 Cents. 
 
 By a 
 
 ITozsr of 
 Xoriti 
 Flat 
 
^SHfefe, 
 
 
 c 
 
 ! I 
 
 Mmi 
 
A-^y* . 1 
 
 OUR CflNDIDSTE: 
 
 A STORY OF 
 
 P^" 
 
 LOVE AND POLITICS, 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 BY 
 
 R VOTER DF NORTH FLAT, 
 
 TORONTO: 
 
 Tag Ontabk. Njbws company. 
 
 1887. 
 
 
ir 
 
 TO 
 
 THE ELECTORS OF THE COUNTY OF KENT 
 
 THESE BRIEF CHAPTERS OF INCIDENTS 
 ARE 
 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 
 A FELLOW-ELECTOR. 
 
 c 
 
 9 
 

 
 \ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 r. ^ CHAPTER I. p.-. 
 
 Our Candidate, . . •"* 
 
 » 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 The Campaign Opens, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 A North Plat Politician. . 
 
 14 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Nominating Convention, . 
 
 16 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Political Missionaries 
 
 19 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 A New Issue of the Campaign, 
 
 (3HAPTER VII. 
 " Our Candidate " in the Hands of His Friends, .... gg 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 On to Muggins' Comers. . 
 
 S« 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Politics at " The Corners " 
 
 • . . 80 
 
 _ CHAPTER X. 
 
 An uubiasad Elector of North Flat 
 
 88 
 
 i 
 
} 
 
 ▼I CON'TENTH. 
 
 CHAPTEIl XI. ' paoe 
 
 The Meeting at Mugginaville, 87 
 
 CHAPTKR XII. 
 Love and Politica , , 40 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Getting the Strength of the Party, 42 
 
 CHAPTEH XIV. 
 Awaltening Tender Meraorioa, 45 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 A Midnight Mission, ..•....,.. 47 
 
 CHAPTEIt XVI. 
 •• The Traveling Show of Hands." 50 
 
 CHAPTER XV'II. 
 Love and Party AUegiancse, 39 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 The " Free and Intelligent," 35 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 Politioal Epistles, 58 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 A Mental Struggle 91 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 The Meeting at Satanville, 63 
 
 CHAPTER XXll. 
 " The Power of ihe Press," 09 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 I'lOtxiination Cay in North Fiat, ....,., 76 
 
 
Paoi 
 •7 
 
 40 
 
 4< 
 
 4S 
 
 • • 
 
 47 
 
 00 
 
 89 
 
 • t 
 
 55 
 
 88 
 
 61 
 
 68 
 
 • • 
 
 75 
 
 CONTKNT8. ^^^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Father Innocent'H Picnic 
 
 80 
 
 CHAPTEIl XXV. 
 A Poiitical Martyr. . 
 
 8« 
 
 CHAPTIiU XXVI. 
 The Intercepted Letter 
 
 88 
 
 CIIAPTEK XXVII. 
 "All Honorable Men." 
 
 90 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 "Deeds of Darknesa." . 
 
 Oft 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 "Light Cometh with the MornuiK," ... tntt 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 " Sleepy Hollow » Wide Awak.' 
 
 105 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 The Incendiary's Revelation, .... 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 The Tug of War, 
 
 112 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 The Triumph, . 
 
 119 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 The Secret Out, 
 
 135 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
 li.. 
 
 Hi'* 
 
/ 
 
 I: 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 OUB CANDIDATE. 
 
 When Tom Guilford droDoed intn fhp nffi^^ ^ j 
 me tha, our folks up in Flafcou; ^"wan.^f Mrtltu^nl^r J?'" 
 hament, I was neither astonislied nor «, rf ,5 r, for Par- 
 the good and evil that comM to ,,= ,°„^i,- I^ •""• "^"^ "^ botli 
 some action on our part and T J ""^ '''?>» '"Perinduced by 
 
 hero as a super,°a::ra7cL?acteVb\" s^,%t ,™eTr ' ""' 
 
 SeTh nlroTa'^felhl; ^"oTh JT ''"^'""^ '^ ^ ^'^ 
 
 srh':\i,r.f>3„{tr^^ 
 !:i:eX„r=o=??~«^ 
 
 S^a,;tttrad\"i-S ~ 
 
 ri^xSadBiSS--"^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 of life in which thrprseLS mav -h-^^^ m any sphere 
 thought to use some of h sfn poluS He Lh° f ' ^'' "^^ ^'^ 
 hand in the political campaigning of th^cifvlnt'/^^. ''^'" ^. 
 his party and his friends, and r^ that tLreVl "—^^^^ 
 to try it in his own behnlf in nZ ^'^^X ^^""^ ^" invitation 
 
 our native coun°yT Tom took me into hi",'"''.^'^'''^ ^'' ^''' ^^ 
 a^7;: crhtelT<S=d'L^e7^1"„\tereUt'd"^?™ "-^=^ 
 
 2 * 
 
 ? 
 
/ 
 
 10 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 Whether it was my assent, or the representations made to him 
 by \'ne local lights of our party in North Flat that settled it, 
 Thomas Guilford, barrister, solicitor, etc., London, Ont., and the* 
 J. C. aforesaid, might have been seen not many days after the legal 
 conference above referred to, taking their journey into a rural 
 constituency of Western Canada, in one of the best livery turn- 
 outs that Catchemtovvn could produce. 
 
 It was earliest autumn, or ruther, latest summer. Our way led 
 through one of the richest agricultural districts of Canada, the 
 roads were good, and the weather was fine. Dame Nature 
 seemed doing her best to give both parties a fair field and no 
 favor in the coming contest. The J. C. was in rapturous mood. 
 Office slave that he had been for several years, there opened 
 before him two months of rural life, not dull and monotonous, as 
 rural life often is, but filled with the commotions of a general 
 political campaign, which in any country where popular govern- 
 ment obtains, begins in the chief centers of civilization, and 
 extends in widening ripples, till it reaches the most obscure 
 "Cross-Roads " and " Corners " settlement. He, the J. C. afore- 
 said, would sit at the rough but plenteous tables of the North 
 Flat farmer, breathe the invigorating country air, draw inspi- 
 ration from nature, and learn wisdom of the political wire-puller. 
 Delightful prospect ! No wonder that the birds seemed to be 
 singing a new opera, that the tinted sumacs and the dark green 
 maple foliage turned to richest tapestries, and the roadside gully 
 became a purling brook. How easy it was to picture the battle 
 going all in our favor, the victory even won, and our handsome 
 carriage the car of state in a triumphal procession, while field on 
 field of golden grain, waving in the summer breeze, bent a grace- 
 ful obeisance to the victor. 
 
 With the would-be Candidate, it may be, the problem did not 
 look so easy. There was an expression of anxiety on his face. 
 The regular party convention, which was to formally nominate 
 him and publicly announce him as the party's harmonious and 
 unanimous choice, was yet nearly two days off, and who could 
 tell what perverse human nature might do in two days ; what 
 ambitions of local aspirants, temporarily suppressed, what neigh- 
 borhood and factional jealousies overcome, might be kindled 
 afresh in the course of two days .' 
 
 Thomas Guilford was a bachelor in fact as well as at law, of a 
 well-proportioned physique, though not of a pugnacious disposi- 
 tion, and though just past thirty, he was more often found draw- 
 in'" nice distinctions in leal r>rQcedure before a Tud^e in 
 Chancery than brow-beating a witness or bamboozling a jury in 
 
IS made to him 
 that settled it, 
 1, Ont.. and the* 
 's after the legal 
 ley into a rural 
 )est livery turn- 
 
 ■. Our way led 
 of Canada, the 
 
 Dame Nature 
 ir field and no 
 apturous mood. 
 5, there opened 
 monotonous, as 
 IS of a general 
 )opular govern- 
 ivilization, and 
 
 most obscure 
 the J. C. afore- 
 ;s of the North 
 ir, draw inspi- 
 ical wire-puller. 
 I seemed to be 
 the dark green 
 
 roadside gully 
 :ture the battle 
 
 our handsome 
 I, while field on 
 e, bent a grace- 
 
 »roblem did not 
 ty on his face, 
 mally nominate 
 larmonious and 
 and who could 
 vo days ; what 
 ;d, what neigh- 
 ;ht be kindled 
 
 as at law, of a 
 lacious disposi- 
 en found draw- 
 
 rp 3 TiiHop in 
 
 ._ _ J j3_ ..1 
 
 >zling a jury in 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 11 
 
 soLTnd illt^rC, ftce'l'd° Wr^''^' 'r^ '^^ '^' ^ »^-ci. 
 even frank, without bdng\^^^ Nnl'^^.'^u' ""'' courteous, 
 
 that makes a popular pdftci^ntr: h. ^"? ^^^ •'""""" °f "^^n 
 
 too high, and^^und'o goid 's °nse tha^^n^^ '^''' "°^ 
 
 himself to his surroundinpTh^ hn^Krrr^'^'^^ '^'™ ^o adapt 
 in politics with^t descending fnl'^'^r'^^^^ ^' "°"'d «""«ed 
 taken for ability He helJno ult ^rlr'^!"" -^ ^"^'^ '^ °f^^" '"i^" 
 no hobbies. In poHtics anH J l" l^ "' opinions, and he rode 
 
 whatever is. is bes'^a ^even t^ft^ had o?"^"* ''^'' '^'^ '"^^^ 
 government in power at Ottawa In sLrM f ^«P''°"-a Tory 
 as a man without any narrow hlantll' k"""'' *° represent him 
 ditions, yet possessed of stmnT ^'^"'"" ^^out persons or con- 
 
 every mJasu?e?hirocc°Viedh\pTbre;r"^^^^^^ 
 
 Smith and Horace Greelev wiM, r* "« had read Adam 
 
 come to the conclusion hat wWe arXtr^".''"'''^^^ ^"^ '^^^ 
 made temoorarily promotive of /h. condu,ons could be 
 
 particular people KTee°H .°?™"''^' importance of a 
 was the prfnciS^tt^:; workerju ul^r^"?' '^ ^" '''^' 
 was therefore a sincere Free Trader w?;"'?'^ J"'^"'^''- ^e 
 tcction as a mortal sin ^ rader without regarding Pro- 
 
 of "h?sittinrm°:f.£^onhe'p?::-^ ^T';'^^"^^ - ^'^^ P--n 
 
 clever, and popular in thl Uulv nn^ r'"/ ^^^^"^^ly. who, young, 
 a place in the Fedeal Pari amen. -' ''"'"' ^^"^^^ '^ "se to 
 ing but cash to makTllis'^c'll n'/a 'd d^ct^ sTr:""'' " "°'^- 
 
 It will not affect the thread of this storv if T f 
 to surmise why it was that this rivr/r, i^ } '^•^"'^ "^^ ''^aders 
 instead of an opfonentL Local mV^k'''"'^ disappeared, and 
 liminary meeting of the n^rv. Member appeared at the pre- 
 man ^.W h„.f til ZZZTo?'~,i'j S^^:^''""' 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OPENS. 
 
 the rest of the world th, rnm,, ^'"/ °' ^'"^ bounty from 
 
 .ransformatio: T\tTT,lT,l,tTr.-T^''1 ^' ?- ' 
 entertaining. The hard Vm^^' th.^ -erious muud ne had been 
 
 «esh a„d I. .-„ed"ci::rf<;^:LTe^:s:erd'£:,r;!?drt 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 s 
 
12 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 I.if 
 
 ■ \[ 
 
 about the mouth were perceptibly relaxed. The look of misan- 
 thropy he had been wearing as he reflected on the pie-crust 
 character of ante-election promises, died out from his features, 
 and there was a sudden and great upheaval of his social nature. 
 To every farmer's wife and daughter we lifted our hats like city 
 gallants, and said "good-day !" with a hearty cheerfulness that 
 must have made that common-place salutation strike the ear with 
 a new significance. We drove carefully through flocks of sheep 
 that encumbered the roadside, lest, perchance, our carriage wheels 
 m 'ht maim a lamb belonging to one of the "free and indepen- 
 dent" of Flat County ; and we stifled the hard words that rose to 
 our lips when a miserable cur flew out at our horses, lest the 
 wind might carry our imprecations to the ears of the owner and 
 harden his heart against Our Candidate. 
 
 One of the measures which marked the statesmanship of the 
 men in power at the time Our Candidate insisted on 
 serving his country, is known to posterity as the Gerrymandering 
 Bill, though that is not the title by which it is cited in official 
 records. According to the preamble the intent of the act was to 
 distribute representation in Parliament according to population 
 in the country. lAit the unprejudiced outsider will agree that the 
 first purpose of the honorable leader of the Government in intro- 
 ducing the bill and requiring his supporters to vote it through, 
 was to provide territorial asylums for a class of electors who suf- 
 fered from apolitical monomania about a change of Government, 
 and were expected to give the ruling party a great deal of trouble 
 about this time at the polls. 
 
 In the opposition press it was spoken of as a scheme for 
 "hiving the Grits." By the passage of this bill the boundaries of 
 North Flat were so manipulated that its political complexion 
 was very materially changed. The township of Mackenzie on 
 the east, having a Grit majority of two hundred, was taken off 
 and added to the next electoral district, already hopelessly Grit 
 in its political sentiments, and the township of Tupper on the 
 west, with a Tory majority of fifty, was added from an electoral 
 district that guaranteed a Tory majority without it. This trans- 
 position of two hundred and fifty votes made North Flat a very 
 evenly divided constituency and left the result at the polls cor- 
 respondingly doubtful. 
 
 It was reflection on these things that made us mindful of the 
 estrangement of any friendly dweller by the roadside as we 
 entered the Riding that fine summer morning and determined us 
 to represent the Gerrymander x\ct as the most atrocious measure 
 in all the annals of political crime. 
 
: look of misan- 
 n the pie-crust 
 )tn his features, 
 is social nature, 
 jr hats like city 
 heerfulness that 
 ike the ear with 
 flocks of sheep 
 carriage wheels 
 ee and indepen- 
 3rds that rose to 
 horses, lest the 
 f the owner and 
 
 smanship of the 
 te insisted on 
 Gerrymandering 
 cited in official 
 if the act was to 
 ig to population 
 ill agree that the 
 rnment in intro- 
 vote it through, 
 ilectors who suf- 
 of Government, 
 t deal of trouble 
 
 s a scheme for 
 le boundaries of 
 cal complexion 
 )f Mackenzie on 
 d, was taken off 
 ' hopelessly Grit 
 
 Tupper on the 
 rom an electoral 
 
 it. Thistrans- 
 forth Flat a very 
 at the polls cor- 
 
 s mindful of the 
 roadside as we 
 d determined us 
 trocious measure 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 13 
 
 J 
 
 quesdon V'^asked" th? •'^°" ^°''"^ *" ''^' °" '^is Temperance 
 .o'^Se/'h^an'rwer^d ="PP""" "^ ">= t-perance measures, 
 
 either advisable or acrentahlp Th^^^ * lugii^di lo ue 
 
 selling because dri„kmg'Sra"s'tdairmrX';'';°: 
 
 fn;S'dy:j'';3LtTe^ear;;"-'^^- ""'" '"'" -^ -ro!,';; 
 
 not witVX tv '"'"'y ^"i'"' to be public with the drinker and 
 
 sr itiS'^^^c''e7.'=su"gy^a' ttf^^^'"" '-^ ''■"■'" 
 apin^"l;?:e7eV^.h^rcrnSi'\^2^ti^ ;r.^i-s't;nS 
 
 01 ma,or,ty conception, not necessarily a log'^^cal one We are 
 co"cl"„fiohs" r''T"'"'' \°''°" '"'• "ow, no. after togica! 
 
 mo e than bv fei^U ,nd -f ""''^ "■ '"" «°™'"'^<i ^y sentiment 
 uore man by sense, and if you don't want to reflect on ihr Im.l. 
 
 nSesalIv1n";rf\^"'^>'"'°"' ^^ will la^ thos ogical 
 paign is over'- '°°'" °^ ^°"' '"^"'"' ^"^^ ^'^ ^^is ?am- 
 
 ar^in^Ve'lice'nt^"?'"1f•'° 1° ^'^'^ ^'^°«^ ^"'^"^8 of yours who 
 are in the licensed-victualling business.? Thev will hardlv takp 
 
 " NVirxnec'tlrr: ?;• ""^^"^^^^ ^^^ -«:";.' thfi^ca^e'-' 
 exercise thefrln°'' . i ''"' u "" ^"'^^"^^ ^^ ^^ich they must 
 exercise their sense and not their sentiment Thev are in th^ 
 
 X'co'ntJoYrhVisr' rT'^ ^" ^^^ Pro"vSncia? G^o^ernm n 
 oppose me'-' ''^ '"'"'"' '^'^ '"'^^ ^? ^^'''^f"' how they 
 
 in thl"fight7' ^°" ^'' "°' ^°'"^ '° ""^^^^^ ^° ^">'t'"ng of that sort 
 
 ins'ta^ce"^" Th.°^'KT ^^""^ "?' ^^^ ^° ^^«°'' '« anything in this 
 akl thLs i r ^'J^-^i^^^-^fer 13 understood, and I have simply to 
 
 his coe^Hnn ?;'^ 5""- -^ '^'" "^^^^ «° "^"^h as insinuate 
 this coercion. It is the majority opinion that I will use my in- 
 
 i 
 
 f 
 
14 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 fluence in that way, because others have done it, and I bow to 
 the majority." 
 
 " Then this is to be entirely a question of majorities, as I 
 understand it," said the J. C. 
 
 " The majority have decreed it so," answered the Candidate, 
 and lapsed into silence again, that was unbroken until we reached 
 the next homestead inhabited by an adherent of our cause, 
 where we called to remind him of the convention and admonish 
 him to bring out his friends and make the meeting a large one. 
 Thus we rallied the known friends of our party as we passed 
 along and rested that night beneath the hospitable roof of one 
 of the "Fathers of Reform" in Flat County. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A NORTH PLAT POUTICIAN. 
 
 A conspicuous figure in the municipal affairs and local politics 
 of Flat County was Colonel Toll. He came of good old Irish 
 stock, and his honorable blood still bore a strain of the blue, not- 
 withstanding a lifetime spent in surroundings that did nothing to 
 refine and much to vitiate it. He had come to the country when 
 North Flat was a wilderness, and with no capital but his sturdy 
 manhood and good muscles he had made himself a horafe, a cm- 
 petence and a respected name in the community. He was ^ ^o- 
 nounced in his allegiance to the conservatism of the Tory party 
 in politics and of the Catholic Church in religion. But while he 
 clung with the immovable faith of childhood to the letter of both 
 these, he was in spirit much broader than his creeds, and he had 
 thus come to be looked up to as a leader by the smaller minds of 
 the neighborhood and was proportionately valued as an ally by 
 the priest and the politician. 
 
 He had taken for his second wife a daughter of Ferguson Mc- 
 Dermott, a man of the Presbyterian faith, and one of the fathers 
 of the political Israel, whose deep and unstinted hatred of Tory- 
 ism would far more than offset the Colonel's repugnance to liberal 
 ideas. Not content with discrediting everything Tory himself, 
 he had sought to educate his family in a like distrust of every- 
 thing that sympathized with Toryism. How then could the 
 daughter of Ferguson McDermott become even the second wife 
 of such a son of the Canaanites as Col. Toll? That was what the 
 neighbors wanted to know when the marriage took place. The 
 curiosity of the common gossips may be prying, but it is not very 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 16 
 
 !?,rh''!fn 111- ^" ''I'' ""-^^ •* suggested a dozen sinister motives for 
 
 sible head r^'.' ^".' '' TV '^""'^ «'^^ ^^"^ McDermott^s sen- 
 sible head and heart credit for commanding Col. Toll's attention 
 on unselfish grounds. They were probably ready °o admit tha" 
 
 peoore whYhTH''' P'^^'°" '•'^^" ^^^'«-°" or'politics in two young 
 Kmeet^ne bulTr^^^ religion nor presided over f 
 
 w fi, f -r^ji- ^* the Colonel was on the sunset side of life when 
 
 a ttrac vr^rlSnoH 'l^ ^T ^''''^^-'' -«« far past the years of 
 
 attractive girlhood when she married him, and the neighbors were 
 
 low to credit either of them with sufficient of the "ender nas^on 
 
 everT.r' '°k^™^^ ""^"sious and political prejudices ^How- 
 
 ?olU sfron^'L^'^ "i'^VT' '^^^ ^'^^^ '° '"^^ present Mrs 
 of ColonH Tnll ^ '^ • *=.haracter that compelled the respect 
 
 as tSe wen?^by."' '''^ " ''' •"""^"" "P°" '^'^ unconscio'usly 
 7'^^\^",'^TT°"^^'" "member of the household was the Coloner<; 
 
 in I tf' "r^""" '^°"- ^^ '^' P'^'" °ld farm-house. stanSiig 
 in a grove of evergreens, with only a well kept grave walk f 
 
 Ind r^7- ''frf'f?*^^^^ ^^'^^^ ^"d a flower bo?de? of hollyhocks 
 and mangolds, had been ever so much plainer than it was^he 
 knowledge that pretty Nora Toll lived there wou d have Zen it 
 the distinction it had among the many less cared for farmhouses 
 
 hance^o^f'Jhe?''''^-. .^l' ^^^ ^^'^^"^'^ '^"^' ^^'^ a fSl inSer! 
 itance of the accredited beauty of her parents' native isle and 
 
 had received with it an inherent gentility that was not the com 
 
 mon birthright of the children of a new and soarselv Lnl^H 
 
 srn^'whilJ ?Ji'h" ''' ^?^i^^"^^.^ the admiJatioSTlLTulft 
 sTdet'v miiht t. •'"'' V^' artificialities and aff^ectations that 
 the c tv m^nl f ' ''"P°^fd »PO" her had she been brought up in 
 the city made her pecuharly attractive to the city young man 
 
 ^Wenington"rr^'P'^1!"'^^''""S'^^ ^"^° ^^e neighb'orho'od of 
 Wellington Gate, as the Colonel had named his home Even 
 the school teacher, whose pedantic air and city-made clothes h2 
 supposed to be rresistible in the rural district^s,™ound someone 
 as good as himseU in Nora Toll. The young people of the neTgh 
 
 ^^£:b^d^-^^ST^,rs^ 
 
 Jim fhe'Xfsex' Tf""'' ^"^ t"^^^^^ aboutThoseltten'ti'ont 
 
 ;heTeX°sHe:-^nSnr^^^^^^^^^^^ P'TT^ womanhood of 
 Tunner fn„,n=h,- ■' ^ /^^o^^^^eut figure in all the social doings of 
 
 teE th^ .h? ^""^ ^'' '^' ;""°^^"^ ^''j^^' °f '""^h morf at- 
 tention than she was aware of. Of one thing she was utterly 
 
 c 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 ;i 
 
 f: 
 
16 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 ':|': 
 
 oblivious, and that was that John Swanson, wealthy, unwedded and 
 well on to fifty, made his frequent and neighborly visits to her 
 father's house, not because of his lave for the Colonel's company, 
 but because of his secret admiration for the Colonel's only 
 daughter. His limited intelligence and parsimonious nature 
 were the contempt of the Colonel. But in the country there is 
 not so much choice of companionship as in town and city, and 
 long acquaintance had made Swanson quite endurable in the 
 Colonel's home. 
 
 There had been a like indirectness in the occasional attentions 
 shown Nora by J. Jones Pinkerton, a bachelor lawyer of Catch- 
 emtown, a man of small practice in law, but of large social con- 
 sequence, hinging upon an illustrious ancestry, which, however, 
 was too far away and had been too long in the churchyard to be 
 of much interest to anybody but himself in a new land where dis- 
 tinction goes more by personal merit than in the old. It was 
 Nora's blissful want of appreciation of the ancestral stock from 
 which J. Jones sprang that nettled Pinkerton and kept him unde- 
 cided whether or no he ought to tell his love. 
 
 This was the position of affairs in those early autumn days on 
 one of which lovely Nora Toll might have been seen resting her 
 pretty cheek against a post of the front veranda at "Wellington 
 Gate," and wearing a wondering seriousness on her face that har- 
 monized beautifully with what poets call the melancholy days of 
 the year. She was wondering what pleasure her father found in 
 these political contests that rewarded him for all the false rumors 
 and rancor they embroiled him in. All the love her young and 
 happy spirt was capable of had thus far been bestowed upon her 
 father, and every evil repor* about him awakened all her youthful 
 resentment. She little thought that she was to be "an important 
 factor" as the politicians would say, in the campaign that was just 
 then opening. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE NOMINATING CONVENTION. 
 
 Our friends in Tupper township had so often fought a losing 
 battle while they were part of the hopelessly Tory riding adjoin- 
 ing North Flat, that they had become discouraged. Now that 
 they were joined to a riding more evenly divided there was at 
 least "a fighting chance," as they expressed it, and it was with 
 the intention of enthusing them on that point that our friends 
 determined to hold the nominating convention in Tupperville. 
 
 m 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 17 
 
 It was a great day for Tupperville. Delegates appointed and 
 delegates^.t.large came in from the uttermost corners of the r'd- 
 
 Z'ns: inZTont'^ '°""^''P' t' ''' '' '^ sympathized with ou 
 cause turned out to receive them. The little village hall was 
 
 iTerfor NortrFTat'Vh- ""P"" ^'.^ ^^'^^'^^"^ '"'' '^' Lo'cal Mel'! 
 ber.for North Flat, the vice-presidents of township Reform Asso- 
 
 orh°r<:;i?''TT"n"' member of the Catholic Church, the G.W. M 
 of he Sleepy Hollow Lodge of Orangemen, and Tustee Enoch 
 Holdup of the African Methodist Episcopal church. These ?vere 
 backed by a row of newspaper publishers, representing he power 
 of the press m Flat County from a Grit standpoint. The> were 
 armed with carefully sharpened lead-pencils and a arge sujp7y of 
 blank paper, which impressed the meeting with the idea St thev 
 were about to take a verbatim report of the smallest hap enings 
 The honors of presiding were bestowed on a young^man of 
 
 mroTthf '^''''' ^'^T ""'"'""• ^^'''^'^^ had made him th^e ^fokes- 
 ZrJ ^T^V '''"'.^"' "^ North Flat Gritism on all public 
 
 occasions and whosq sincerity and zeal always enthused the 
 
 ZTsZl Z^u'-'"''''' °r^'^\'"""icipality at a 'political rally of 
 f^X fi? .? •*^" occasion he felt himself especially honored 
 
 2tiltUrl''T"'.^' ""'"'t'"^'^ ''^'''^ '^' ^^^od in every vein 
 until the oldest voter ,n the room thumped the floor wiih his 
 h ckory walk.ng-stick and put unusual emphasis behind every 
 ejection of tobacco juice. "v, miu cvciy 
 
 w'^l'i! P/°'"'"^"! Catholic nominated Our Candidate, and the 
 Worthy Master o Sleepy Hollow Lodge seconded the nomination 
 No other nominations were offered. The political aspiration of 
 half-a-dozen prominent North Flatters had been n ystedois^v 
 ST""^'' ""^ Our Candidate was to all outward apncaran"^^^^^^^ 
 tfhtll'.°"^ man fitted by nature and education^o carrrthe 
 Liberal standard to victory in the North Riding of Flat County 
 Then came the speech-making, which after a more or less crude 
 fashion gave the key-note to the prevailing sentiment of "he 
 
 vSa"Lde?r n^r'^''°;'°°''-^"' f"^"'"'^^^ the candidate 
 with an index of all the conflicting interests he would be called 
 
 upon to conciliate and harmonize during the next (ew weeks 
 
 He came forvvard amidst hearty applause from the little hall full 
 
 of country people. A general electiin was the quadrenniarwak 
 
 ng-up time of the sluggish mentality of North Flat: PoliTrcal 
 
 issues furnished a mental friction that was wanting in the quie 
 
 S'nuXr n?'" "'^' '"' ^'^ "°^^ ^"^^"'g-^ mfnds, wit? the 
 large number of curious ones, enjoyed the loud debate and the 
 
 etThat br'o Hh' °' ' f^'^^'-' --P-gn more than an^th ng 
 else that broke the monotony of rural pursuits. 
 
 C 
 
t8 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 ! 
 
 With Our Candidate it was an epoch. He had planned for and 
 obtained a nomination to a seat in the highest legislative body of 
 his country in the very neighborhood where he had played as a 
 lad and struggled .is a young man, and now he was just on the 
 threshold of achieving his greatest ambition. But he was not 
 elected yet. The attachments of boyhood and the friendships»of 
 youth, when they are not extraordinary, are as apt to turn to 
 jealousies as they are to warm into new devotion when the suc- 
 cess of an individual is thus brought into sharp contrast with his 
 undistinguished mates. His nomination had not been as spon- 
 taneous as a man of his keen sense of sham would like to have 
 had it and it rather humiliated him as he reflected that he must 
 say "by your favor" to the smallest intelligence in the riding in 
 order to succeed; indeed, the smaller that intelligence the more 
 careful he must be not to overlook it. Here on the very thres- 
 hold of the public career he aspired to he was met with the 
 delicate task of having to say what would fire his most ardent 
 supporters, while at the same time he must be careful not to 
 offend his moderate opponents. From this time forward — well, 
 until the last ballot was marked on voting day — he must sink his 
 own individuality and follow the humiliating dictation of party 
 expediency. He must bury his personal independence in his 
 political ambition. He could resurrect it again — he thought to 
 himself — when the election was over and he stood on the floor of 
 Parliament, uninfluenced by anything but the truth and an honest 
 desire to serve his country. 
 
 Our Candidate was not the best type of man for the rough and 
 ready stump oratory that calls forth the popular huzza. His 
 temperament and manner were too refined and his education too 
 finished for the market he had taken it to. But this meeting was 
 made up of his friends chiefly, and though his utterances were too 
 studied and his words too much chosen to bring out uproarious 
 applause, what he said had the flavor of sincerity and the tone 
 of modesty and met with general acceptance. 
 
 The Local Member had, by preconcerted plan, been reserved 
 for the last as the big gun, that would leave a reverberating echo 
 for the delegate to carry home with him and enthuse his neigh- 
 borhood. He was admirably adapted both by nature and expe- 
 rience for the work of the professional politician in a country 
 where the institutions of government are determined by the popu- 
 lar vote of a rudimentary nationality. He was expected to bring 
 the meeting to a climacteric close, and he did so. He astonished 
 his friends who had urged his own nomination by the generous 
 spirit in which he endorsed Our Candidate, and the emphasis 
 with which he moved a resolution making the action of the con- 
 
 % 
 
planned for and 
 jislative body of 
 had played as a 
 was just on the 
 But he was not 
 le friendships,of 
 i apt to turn to 
 n when the suc- 
 :ontrast with his 
 t been as spon- 
 uld like to have 
 ed that he must 
 
 in the riding in 
 gence the more 
 
 the very thres- 
 s met with the 
 his most ardent 
 
 careful not to 
 ; forward — well, 
 e must sink his 
 ctation of party 
 lendence in his 
 —he thought to 
 J on the floor of 
 \\ and in honest 
 
 r (he rough and 
 ar huzza. His 
 is education too 
 his meeting was 
 Frances were too 
 out uproarious 
 ity and the tone 
 
 , been reserved 
 erberating echo 
 thuse his neigh- 
 iture and expe- 
 n in a country 
 ed by the popu- 
 :pected to bring 
 He astonished 
 y the generous 
 d the emphasis 
 ;ion of the con- 
 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. ]9 
 
 vention unanimous. Without committing his nominee or hi, 
 party to any specific policy, he pronounced the men in power a 
 set of rogues and imbeciles, and predicted their inevitLble defeat 
 at the coming poll in a glowing peroration: "I hear even now " 
 he said, "the first rumblings of the prophetic thunder-7tTsd?a; 
 ing nearer; growing deeper; the storm of an outraged and india' 
 T^f""'T' ^'" '''''^' '^'' ^°""'^y «" the th^of Septemb? 
 cove?a'ii:b^Vndr" ^°^^^""^^" ^"^ ^^^ ^"'^ '"^ 'he^rd':: 
 (Deafening applause.) 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 POLITICAL MISSIONARIES. 
 
 The nieans of winning a man of '''ory tendencies from th^ 
 error of his ways to the pure and undei.led pn"nciples of oTitis.n 
 are many and varous. He can be wnnfH ^^ ''\'l^'^^ °' '^""S'." 
 m«.n<! nf him i;i, ii • • ^°"^" — that IS, some spec - 
 
 mens of him— like a well-intentioned but weak-minded sinner 
 by smooth words and fair promises of what is To be er ioved 
 when he has passed over Jordan ; that is, when the loyal Opposi 
 ie°rtef bvToIdin '"'^^ 'f'^-^-y benches' Another S ^eTo": 
 verted by holding up to his mental vision horrible picture, nf 
 impending evil under the present party rule Anothernav be 
 only a backslider, still holding firmly to the main dorfrTnl r 
 the party faith but in an evil hour led away by some p au^il^e 
 invention of the enemy. To him it has to be explained that 
 these seeming advantages, of a high tariff for instance are bu 
 
 nVtSrrh'en the'h'/rd r°" '^'" P""^'^^^ ^^ PoHU^aUcoTom'; 
 ana mar wnen the hard times come aga n he with thp Tr^r., o^^ 
 
 the disappointed office-seeker, will be' ie"; on T wro^I^de' o'f 
 . Should you. dear reader, feeling called to the work of a Dob> 
 
 Bo1s™Twiirr''n'/'\' "P^° ^ farm-house and ask for '< the 
 sibe'towhoi.'.r-l/° ^'r' " determined beforehand if pes! 
 
 rw^ran^^re'o't'tst-n^'h" '"tiied^^atir^" T'l"^'' '' 
 wanting to know ^wh"''y?u':in; o^the^ts^rnS^Jnou'lre:"' 
 you re them political chaps what's runnin' •r;und the ^untrv 
 keeping men folks from their work an' tryin' to get "em to vo7; 
 
 LTtS ' '°" "f '^P^"^ "P"" ^' the'iJerson'b fore ^ou hi: 
 great influence in the matter nf h'^»' ^be "r*" -%- -i-^t 
 
 "'stum'nin"^.^;.^"? 'I'' '* ^he boss '' with%"small^? whr,To"I 
 stumping the back pasture in the interest of a rising family of 
 
 9 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
20 
 
 OUR CAXDIDATK. 
 
 girls, is only the uuminal head of the household. If the person 
 before you has been brought rp in your political belief the man 
 in ihe bark lot will vote right 'id you need not waste any time 
 in diiscussing the issues of the c.npaign with him. If she favors 
 the other side, well, then it depends on your policy much more 
 than your party's If your candidatt- is a good-looking, or even 
 an agreeable man, it may be worth while to stop to tea, provided 
 you can get an invitation. 
 
 The morning after the convention we took into our carriage 
 one of the life-long Reformers of Flat C'ounty and set out on a 
 missionary tour. Wliy our guide and aide in missionary labors 
 should so arrange it that on the very first day of our travels our 
 carriage should draw up at Col. Toll's just about dinner time, 
 would have been a puzzle to Our Candidate and the J. C. if he 
 had no' given us a little of the inside history of municipal pol- 
 itics in Flat County. 
 
 The Colonel was known to be well read in political economy, 
 and a peculiar phase of his much reading was that with r great 
 deal that was narrow and conservative in politics and religion, he 
 had mingled Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, making him a 
 free trader in material things, while a i)rotectionist in metaphys- 
 ical concerns and opinions. He was Reeve of his township, and 
 had that very year aspired to tie position of presiding officer of 
 the county council. 
 
 There was a tradition among the local politicians of Flat 
 County that political issues and party feeling had no place in 
 municipal affairs; but it was only a tradition. The vote on the 
 Wardenship was almost always a party vote. On this occasion 
 the county council was so constituted as to have a Tory majority, 
 but it was inharmoniously made up, and the coming forward of 
 two Tory aspirants divided the party strength and gave the office 
 to a Grit Col. Toll was an old and tried and withal a modest 
 servant of the county. He was getting on in years and had a 
 very reasonable wish to crown his term of service with the hon- 
 orable office of Warden, and he could not forgive ;(ii? si fish in- 
 gratitude of his friends which 1 :!d deprived him of the oiilv office 
 he had ever set his heart upon. Our associatf: in rni^siunary 
 labor judged well, therefore, when he said the Colunci's known 
 objection to Protection, which was the chief issue of the cani- 
 paign, would furnish him an excuse for standing aloof in this 
 c^.ijtest or throwing his weight on the other side, thus satisfying 
 h;, cru'dge against those who had deserted him at the council 
 hos; 
 
 \m 
 
■4.jS»^ 
 
 If the person 
 1 belief the man 
 t waste any time 
 n. If she favors 
 alicy much more 
 •looking, or even 
 to tea, provided 
 
 nto our carriage 
 nd set out on a 
 riissionary labors 
 our travels our 
 3Ut dinner time, 
 J the J. C. if he 
 if municipal pol- 
 
 olitical economy, 
 hat with r great 
 3 and religion, he 
 11, making him a 
 list in metaphys- 
 lis township, and 
 esiding officer of 
 
 )liticians of Flat 
 had no place in 
 rhe vole on the 
 Dn this occasion 
 a Tory majority, 
 iming forward of 
 ad gave the office 
 withal a modest 
 years and had a 
 ce with the hon- 
 ;iv* 'tie selfish in- 
 of the ot.lv office 
 itr 'M rcii's; "lary 
 Coioiic'i's Known 
 ssue of the cam- 
 ling aloof in this 
 le, thus satisfying 
 m at the council 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 A NEW ISSUE OF THE OAMPAIQN. 
 
 *' Well, you ha'1 better come in and have some dinner, any. 
 way 'vaa the hi.,t symptom we had of the Colonel's disposition 
 o o'cratc us on the premises at all. We who knew the Colonel 
 httle theu, were m doubt whether the invitation was simply a 
 roncession to Mrs. Toll, now as ever a staunch Reformer, or the 
 opmt of revenge moving within him. It is the common tendency 
 to find a selfish motive for the kindliest deeds if we can. Know- 
 mg we had a firm friend in that strong-minded woman, Mrs. Toll, 
 we only exchanged significant glances and went in 
 
 Even a few days of country life, with continuous riding in the 
 open air, had wrought a miracle on the J. C.'s appetite, and he 
 was not a bit abashed at the enormous plateful of fried pork, crisp 
 eggs and large, mealy-looking potatoes that the Colonel piled up 
 for him. But even while the coarser sense of physical appetite 
 was as yet unsatisfied, a finer, more subtle sense, which always 
 responds to the power of beauty in some of its forms, was stirred 
 by the pretty face and pleasing figure of th- Colonel's daughter, 
 seated on the other side of the table. To the J. C. she seemed 
 a pictui^ of physical lovehness and rural sincerity, set in a frame- 
 work of homely surroundings that intensified its charm The 
 company being large enough to carry on the conversation with 
 very hi le of his assistance, he found the mountain of ham. eggs 
 and potatoes a friendly fortification behind which to hide his 
 discomposure when caught, either by Mrs. Toll or her step- 
 A^ ^^^ ^'^""*^ '°° intently on the entrancing picture 
 Mrs. Toll, with manifest pride, if not some strategic intent, 
 had seated Our Candidate and Nora opposite each other! 
 Whether the former wished to avoid the rocks and shoals of the 
 political channel on wh.Vh he might rightly fear a too free dis- 
 cission with the Colonel would land him, or whether he was 
 f!? ^ '" fu^^u"^ in taking the soundings of Miss Toll's mind, the 
 tact was that he left our assistant missionary to woo the Colonel 
 ^ .1^ 7.*'''^^ 'o discuss irrelevant nothings with Nora 
 
 Political questions do not interest you greatly, Miss Toll?" 
 said Uur Candidate, intending it not so much for an inquiry as 
 ..- .^^ . .nr .. ... a-.-eniiv:: nc iiad CO give to the Colonel's 
 remarks at intervals. 
 
 [81] 
 
 i 
 
 I 
 
22 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 " Well, I am sure they would be more often asked in 
 and country if it were generally understood that ladies 
 
 "Yes, they do, Mr. Guilford," said Nora with some animation ; 
 " but a woman's views are not often asked for in Elat County. 
 I don't know how it may be in the cities." 
 
 town 
 gave 
 attention to the subject," said Our Candidate, with compliment- 
 ary gallantry. 
 
 " Or, if our names had a place on the voters' list ?" suggested 
 Nora, with just a tinge of sarcasm in her tone. 
 
 Our Candidate winced just a little under this gentle probe at 
 the selfish spirit he was conscious of entertaining from the 
 moment he had entered on this campaign, 
 
 " Are you anxious that the ladies should have the privilege of 
 voting ?" asked Our Candidate. 
 
 "Not so anxious about the particular privilege of casting a 
 vote," said Nora, " but we have come to think that the ballot is 
 something which is wanting to give us an actual part in the pro- 
 gress of the race along with our fathers and our brothers, and we 
 hear just enough about voting at such timts as these to lead us 
 to suppose that a vote is the only means of having our interest in 
 the world we live in acknowledged." 
 
 "I could influence just as many votes as the Colonel in our 
 school section if the women were allowed to electioneer," said 
 Mrs. Toll, trying to catch the Colonel's eye for the effect she 
 knew her remark would have on him. 
 
 "Don't give these women folks any encouragement about 
 woman suffrage, Mr. Guilford," said the Colonel, warmly, while 
 he preferred keeping his eyes on the piece of meat he was cut- 
 ting rather than meeting the glance of Mrs. Toll. 
 
 By the time the meal was ended and a glass of hard cider 
 drunk, our horses were in the harness again, and our host, by the 
 gentle persuasion of the local missionary, had given his word 
 that he would not vote against us, though he did not think he 
 could proclaim himself on our side. So we parted in amiable 
 mood. 
 
 This retirement of one of the most influential men in the 
 enemy's ranks from active part in the contest might have been 
 thought triumph enough for one day, but it seemed only to whet 
 the local missionary's appetite, and we bowled along the country 
 road again with an increased confidence in our ability to carry 
 North Flat for Our Candidate. 
 
 No one would have known that any other thought was respon- 
 sible for the Candidate's apparent happy frame of mind if he had 
 not surprised the J. C. by abruptly asking: 
 
 ■\ 
 
 i 
 
* list ?" suggested 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 23 
 
 more 
 
 '•' w^n * y°",*''^"> Miss Toll a deucedly pretty girl ?" 
 Well you're just shouting, she is '"said the T r 
 anx,ous about the force than the elegance of h^ respo-^nse " 
 
 adde^d"0ufc:nS: '"^ ^" ^"^^"^^^^ ^^^ - hSThoulders," 
 
 noUo'r^Jr'jht'ed'wL"^"^^'^^-^''^ ^'^ ^ '' °f abstraction 
 
 to the assiS'litil' ;td'g3r 'I ^"^-^ 
 
 next implacable Tory lived ^umoredly asked where the 
 
 'e the privilege of 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE IN THE HANDS OF HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 tavern doo, where,,h. CandidafeTa" "d'^ driv"'up ''"°" ^"^ 
 
 Ou"^ CanSdaTe "lulte h'7^^ '"^'^^"l^ ^'^^ust in the mind of 
 yjui ^^ctnuiaaie. Jiut he had gone into this rnntpct «,;fV. o ^ * 
 
 Suv"""'he''-Ji; ^C'."-''J^''"'"« '0 "ta-lf " tW bone o I" 
 in pilS S"^" •■■ ="" °'" «^="'"'^«'' " "■"' ■■^"•' ""-ch fun 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 ,'! 
 
24 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 li. 
 
 il 
 
 li:" 
 
 A 
 
 '! ft 
 
 "Why> What's the matter?" asked the J. C. sympathizingly. 
 " O, those fellows down stairs want money." 
 "And you're trying to elevate the standard of political morality?'^ 
 " So they tell me. And I might as well try to elevate the devil." 
 " Well, he is a hard case, according to the best moral authori- 
 ties," said the junior counsel, "but you're going to win in this 
 
 Without seeming to appreciate the encouragmg remark of ms 
 counsel, he continued : 
 
 " By the way, have you read the Tupperville Triangle s compli- 
 mentary notice of my nomination ? It's just printed, and one of 
 the boys down stairs kindly brought me out a copy to cheer me 
 up, as it were," and Our Candidate drew from his pocket a sorry 
 specimen of "the art preservative," and read : 
 
 A little more than a baker's dozen of cranks and idiots, led by the 
 bottle-holder of the Grit Government at Toronto, who presumes to sit 
 as the local representative of this intelligent Riding, met in the Tupper- 
 ville Town Hall last Wednesday, and nominated Tom Guilford, a pet- 
 tifogging lawyer from the city of London, of little character or ability, 
 as the Grit candidate for North Flat. We would like to know how 
 many more lawyers we are to have in the parliamentary assemblies of 
 this country. 
 
 '* Flattering, isn't it ?" he added. 
 
 " Not more so than this allusion to your esteemed opponent, m 
 the Buxton Borealis :" 
 
 A corporal's guard of venerable mossbacks from various parts of the 
 Riding met at Tupperville, on Friday, and nominated that notorious 
 mountebank and trickster, John Smith, to lead the forlorn hope of de- 
 generate Toryism in North Flat, in the coming election. We should 
 Ske to know what these ranting imbeciles mean by Protection to native 
 industries. 
 
 " They haven't got more than two sixpences to the shilling out 
 of our friend Tommy, have they ?" commented the Candidate. 
 Then he added, " I must write some letters to our boys and get 
 them at work." He bent busily over his work for a while and the 
 J. C. went on with the parceling of some campaign literature that 
 was intended for distribution throughout the Riding. 
 
 "Do you think there is anything ultra vires about these?" he 
 
 inquired, when he had finished writing ; and then proceeded to 
 
 read the following epistles : , ^„^.o 
 
 WiNKViLLE, August 30, 18 — 
 
 Jonathan Boggs, Esq., 
 
 Chairman 1 st Div. Buncombe. 
 My Dear Boggs— What are our friends doing In your sub-division of 
 Buncombe ? I hope they are alive to the interests of our cause. Every 
 
 
Z. sympathizingly. 
 
 lolitical morality?" 
 Elevate the devil." 
 est moral authori- 
 ing to win in this 
 
 ;ing remark of his 
 
 Triangle's compli- 
 
 >rinted, and one of 
 
 copy to cheer me 
 
 his pocket a sorry 
 
 ad idiots, led by the 
 who presumes to sit 
 , met in the Tupper- 
 [■om Guilford, a pet- 
 character or ability, 
 1 like to know how 
 mtary assemblies of 
 
 emed opponent, in 
 
 various parts of the 
 lated that notorious 
 ! forlorn hope of de- 
 ilection. We should 
 Protection to native 
 
 i to the shilling out 
 :ed the Candidate. 
 3 our boys and get 
 for a while and the 
 laign literature that 
 Uding. 
 
 ;s about these?" he 
 then proceeded to 
 
 LE, A.ugu8t 30, 18 — 
 
 L your sub-division of 
 of our cause. Every 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 26 
 
 voter in the division must hn bpoh ot,a »■ _ 
 
 Wherever there are a?y -doubtfuls " thev ZZ^yl T?.*^' ascertained, 
 thev are made right. We are goin J to win^fTi i^ ^""^^'^^ "^'^^ "»*« 
 polf every Reform vote in ordfr to do iJ^ ^LT «",^ork; but we must 
 the division as soon as possfble showini. h.w "® ^^^ ™*'"'^«^ "sts of 
 date, and any remarks iKferenceTo t^oB«^tTf ""^ ™?? stands at this 
 association meetings often and keenfh«fM„rH? f''''^'^ ^ '^^' Hold 
 will come out all ri^ht. ^ *'*® ^''"'^ ^°* »« o"'" side, and we 
 
 Very faithfully yours, Thomas Guilpord. 
 
 L. A. M. Burt, Esq., Winkville, August 80, 18— 
 
 Buttonhole P. O., Flat Co 
 
 divis^on'p'^lSw-t^'a'L'r" a^^BTcST^ ^T^^" " «-*--"« " 
 will void my election! Thlv are a .rifl ^^"',°?* *° ^"^ anything that 
 locality before he w^ a cSndidSe hSf °nd^h« ., ^'"'*^- ^^'^^"^ **»»* 
 will both have to do with it The 2 wil k ^''''■Tf ^"^"^ ^*»at we 
 n-ost likely to have it. Stir unthe f«w frf„»^ ° ^1^^ ** ^'^^ ^'" b« the 
 .'v:i lot. There is great advaK in Tn/kw^ ^^ *'^^®' ^°** ^^««P them 
 success or failure^depeS Jn him^Sne ! ^^7 T"" ^«"«^« t^a* 
 meet ng there as soon^^as I get ou^ frSnl in ul ««* o^^'' and hold a 
 nghtly interested. Write m^e 1^^-^^^;? h^^t^h^^irsL^^^^^^ 
 
 Very truly yours, ^ Guilpord. 
 
 E. J. 
 
 Chobb, 
 
 Rover East P. 0., Flat Co. 
 
 Winkville, August 30, 18— 
 
 '■ Marsh '4^^fmS^^^^^^ down in the 
 
 merized them awfully when he work^H I /^ « ?''^"'S. Smith mes- 
 with the Bishop up lomr The nrw nr? Jf ^o*" «"f«?op- I stand well 
 andwearegoingtoha^eihebStch^,P/,^^fj^ liberal in his opinions, 
 in North Flat. ^Be care?u*Kt fn^e itrarth«^-ir.--.?«"«^ 
 
 Very trul 
 
 Be careful not to injure it bv anythfng injudici'our" 
 
 uly yours, Guilford. 
 
 Enoch Holdup, Esq., Winkville, August 30, 18— 
 
 M V r» 4^"caP.b.,FlatCo. 
 
 thfrl a?e tL^e'p'aX^f^hTcfrnlrl'^Jl"^^^^ '"^ ^/^P* ' ^ ^-o^ 
 
 science, but don't do anything tL?wm^^^^^^^^ 
 going to be elected, and we do^'t wLT ti ^'^^^^'^'i e ection, for I am 
 fwill get over into Af^i^aTownah p anlhold^'om^^ ^^^'" ^^^^^' 
 
 I can. In the meantime eet evprv nno^fV ® meetings as soon as 
 can each make one convert ouimlnorffv f„ .*""'' '?^° ^*^ ^'O'"^' I^ they 
 in your division. Sincerely yourT ^ ' turned into a nice majority 
 
 ^ ' IHOMAS Guilford. 
 
 Dr. Hobson, M. p. p., Winkville, August 80, 18— 
 
 London, Ont. 
 
 c 
 
 'i 
 
 
 
26 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 
 if so, arrange for their coming down polling day. They are Dennis Mc- 
 Guigan, John Smith, and Washington Potts. Of course the law pre- 
 vents me from paying their fare here, else I should be glad to do so; 
 but s^e that they come. Between us, the run will be a mighty close 
 one. by reason of the gerrymander, but I think 1 shall win. 
 
 ' ' Yours truly, TOM. 
 
 " If it is a question of majority with you again," said the J. C, 
 " I don't mind voting with you to let them pass." 
 
 •' Carried, then, by a majority of two to nothing. Now let me 
 see! What am I going to talk about out at Muggins' Corners, 
 to-night .'' I gave them Gerrymander, Streams Bill and Boundary 
 Award out at Plugville last night, didn't I ? To-night I must 
 make it Boundary Award, Streams Bill, and Gerrymander." 
 
 "With a little Onderdonk Contract thrown in somewhere," 
 suggested the J. C. 
 
 " That's a fact ! I'm not rubbing that into Tupper as much as 
 I should. But I'll wait till I meet some of the speakers on the 
 other side and they begin to throw up 'steel rails' to me. Then 
 I'll walk into them." 
 
 At this juncture the hostler of the " Beehive " announced ' rig's 
 ready!" and Our Candidate and the junior counsel set out for 
 Mugginsville. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 ON TO MUGGINS' CORNERS I 
 
 •* The longest way 'round is the shortest way home," has been 
 said of the road that leads to Cupid's abode. And about the 
 longest road from Winkville to Muggins' Corners led by the 
 home of Col. Toll. Our Candidate said that it led past the farm 
 of a voter he wanted to see. Besides it was now several days 
 since our visit to the Colonel's. The missionaries had left him 
 under deep conviction, and Mrs. Toll must have had several op- 
 portunities to put in a word in the meantime. 
 
 It is the common custom to retire early in the country, partly 
 for the purpose of saving fuel and partly because there is nothing 
 to sit up for if one's courting days are over. In this lies one of 
 the advantages a farmer's wife has over her sister of the city. 
 There is no condition in which a husband is so apt to see the 
 force of his wife's reasoning as when she gets him in bed. Sooner 
 than get up again, particularly if it is a chiiiy night in autumn, 
 he will admit a great deal he has had doubts about and would re- 
 
They are Dennis Mc- 
 course the law pre- 
 uld bq glad to do so; 
 [ be a mighty close 
 lall win. 
 
 Tom. 
 
 in," said the J. C, 
 s." 
 
 hing. Now let me 
 Muggins' Corners, 
 Bill and Boundary 
 ' To-night I must 
 errymander." 
 vn in somewhere," 
 
 Tupper as much as 
 :he speakers on the 
 rails' to me. Then 
 
 ' announced " rig's 
 counsel set out for 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 27 
 
 y home," has been 
 e. And about the 
 "orners led by the 
 it led past the farm 
 ,s now several days 
 naries had left him 
 lave had several op- 
 
 the country, partly 
 use there is nothing 
 In this lies one of 
 r sister of the city,; 
 s so apt to see the: 
 [lim in bed. Sooner; 
 y night in autumn, a 
 about and would re- 
 
 fus^e.tc, accept if he were where he could conveniently get out of 
 
 Our Candidate expressed an anxiety to see what use Mrs Toll 
 ^^li'^jf.'^^ll^'JPonnmties; so we'started for Muggin?' Cor 
 ners early ,n the afternoon and went by the way of thf Co one^s" 
 
 man who a short time ago had thrown himself upon the Id I 
 .ts v,ne-shaded windows was indeed a haven " ^"" "'"' 
 
 JLTkr;!:rj '^„t^r^'^ rv,™^='^.'^" -«■ 
 bphT^;h".Sb:„\l'\:o:.s°:r?'rear":ittd°lst^ 
 
 rSe^fnd-h-eT^SrwVr^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 c 
 9, 
 
 I 
 
 ? 
 
28 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 i'' . 
 
 
 Iv aooarent in his face. The art of concealing the emotions and 
 DreseS only the unruffled front of a gentleman, which is sup- 
 
 somrhingThe Colonel had let drop regard ng his kindly leaning 
 toward "he Grit cause and Candidate in this election contest or 
 by reason of Nora's undisguised willingness to f^y^her step- 
 mother's invitation to Mr. Guilford to come m to tea, Our Candi- 
 
 ^'G^rred'a^lftirSbTe! Our Candidate found him.self the 
 ./a z^'of Nora agafn, while Mrs. Toll faced J. Jones Pinkerton 
 and her countenanle betrayed rather the expression of one who 
 keens another at bay than invites to hospitality. Evidently Mrs. 
 S was regarding herself as "a factor" in North Flat politics this 
 Jar^plign tSg^^^ question of woman suffrage about which a 
 Wertne echo sometimes reached that part of the country had 
 noftakfn any suong hold upon her mind. A little real power, 
 such as she knew she exercised over the Colonel, was more satis 
 fvinV4 her woman's soul than a great deal of speculative discus- 
 S^^bout the nfluence of the ballot, and her quiet satisfaction 
 ist now was divided between Our Candidate's apparent m^^^^^^^^^ 
 in Nora and Pinkerton 's evident chagrin. She plied him treeiy 
 with the rJost inviting dishes on the table and with conversation 
 That bore on housekeeping and agriculture ; but these were not he 
 subiects that were interesting Pinkerton and she made him a lit- 
 ?le wearv when she interrupted an exchange of comments with 
 NorTw?h some common-place about the unfavorable weather for 
 keeping the butter nice, or a discursive remark on the inHuence 
 Sie Women's Christian Temperance Union was exerting on the 
 
 "°'fdo'not"stJ"'srNora, addressing herself to both ^ 
 didate and T. Jones Pinkerton, " why all nominations for Pari a- 
 men should bi parly nominations, why any man with an intelli- 
 Sidea of his own should not be at liberty to offer himself as a 
 candidate though he had not even a nommator and a seconder 
 for a Slowing, to say nothing of the sum of money that I under- 
 stand has to be deposited on nomination daj^ p. , ^^^^^ u ^^ 
 "That would never do, Miss Toll, said i'lnKerton. wc 
 should have the country iA a continual turmoil if every hare- 
 Sed hatcher of a new'theory got equal countenance wi h hose 
 ...u_ u_.... .,,nnor^'^'l ^ryA established the tried and true taiths ana 
 dictrines Slhe people? If you overthrow the conservative prm- 
 ciple you overthrow society." 
 
 IH 
 
 ^11 
 
the emotions and 
 lan, which is sup- 
 s, must have been 
 it found no place 
 , but whether by 
 lis kindly leaning 
 ection contest, or 
 ) carry her step- 
 ;o tea, Our Candi- 
 
 "ound himself the 
 f. Jones Pinkerton 
 ession of one who 
 . Evidently Mrs. 
 th Flat politics this 
 a^e about which a 
 f the country had 
 . little real power, 
 lel, was more satis 
 speculative discus- 
 • quiet satisfaction 
 s apparent interest 
 he plied him freely 
 with conversation 
 t these were not the 
 he made him a lit- 
 of comments with 
 vorable weather for 
 rk on the influence 
 as exerting on the 
 
 If to both Our Can- 
 inations for Parlia- 
 nan with an intelli- 
 to offer himself as a 
 tor and a seconder 
 noney that I under- 
 
 i Pinkerton. "We 
 moil if every hare- 
 intenance with those 
 and true faiths and 
 le conservative prin- 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 29 
 
 fright^n'r wo'man"ou;^n?r' ' " '' ''''' ^^ S^"*'^"^«" <=^" ^'^ays 
 
 hef head orS." ' ""^^'^ ''^""'^"* ^'^^" ^^^^ ^^""°^ convince 
 
 "Mr. Pinkerton is right, "said Our Candidate, "we cannot allow 
 
 radicalism too much rope, or unlike the prov^rbral ca"f he i^n 
 
 e se in the hlai of .n ^? as'tm.ght appear to almost everybody 
 
 ■an to tht^c;?\^°"^ ^" ^^^" he met John Swanson, also goine 
 roloni' f ^ehorn nieeting, and to him he told the news of hf 
 
 «ie cause of the Colonel's action would it have awakened a 
 
 s/rJnr/o^^. V"'?"^^'°"^iy J- Jones Pinkerton had found I 
 —i-iuiig, companion ill mortification over Cn] Tnli'c A^r^^t.- j 
 
 c 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 ! 
 
 : 'i; 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 
 
 POLITICS AT "THE CORNERS." 
 
 "Muggins' Corners," as outsiders persisted in calling it, or 
 " Mugginsville," as the residents liked to have it called, took its 
 name from an early lesident of the cross-roads, Gamaliel Mug- 
 gins, proprietor of the Muggins House and of Muggms' Hall. 
 The cross-roads village was comprised of one gene, al store, one 
 blacksmith shop, one tailor shop, two taverns, and an unpreteri- 
 tious little house of worship that stood back in the meadow as if it 
 feared contagion from the dram-shops. There were also a dozen 
 farm-houses, scattered within the radius of a mile, all of which 
 were included in " The Corners." 
 
 The country tavern is still regarded as an indispensable adjunct 
 of civilization. There is a fear that without a licensed dis- 
 pensary of intoxicating drinks all other channels of trade and 
 commerce would become stagnant, the wheels of industry would 
 stand still, and this earth of ours lapse into its primeval ruggedness. 
 Wherever civilization goes the country tavern goes a little ahead 
 of it. It is the avanl courier of the coming village, town and 
 city; or if the village never comes, the tavern is there anyway. 
 In size it is generally the most pretentious building in the settle- 
 ment, and it takes on respectability of outward appearance just 
 in proportion as the dwellings around about throw it off. 
 
 But there were two taverns at Mugginsville, and a division of 
 the trade kept both houses below the standard of country hostel- 
 ries. Both had leaky-looking roofs, tumble-down chimneys and 
 glass out of windows. They were situated on opposite sides of 
 the road; their landlords held opposite views on matters in 
 general, and, during a campaign, on politics in particular. On 
 one point onlv they were agreed, and that was the universal hy- 
 pocrisy of all religionists and temperance advocates. 
 
 While one house took for its title the plebeian name of the pro- 
 prietor, that across the way typified its conservative affinities and 
 its loyalty to monarchical institutions by inscribing on its sign- 
 board "The Queen's." Those conservative affinities ^-ere some- 
 what intensified at this time by the introduction of liquor legis- 
 lation into the issues of the campaign 
 
 It is but natural that that which assumes the name of T,!beralor 
 Reform should draw into its ranks all that is radical and extrava- 
 gant in matters of government and should oftimes be credited 
 
 [30] 
 
 ilii 
 
OUR CANDIDATE, 
 
 31 
 
 with much more than its judicious leaders believe to be practic 
 
 new idea is always a reformer, and eenerallv •! T ih^r.}^?h 
 entrusted with the applicatio'n of^'ccepted ?deas^ 
 Conservative and most frequently a sha'rer inl^e eLlumentsVf 
 
 Fla?formrdtoit h^adT'"'"' °' ^'^^ ^"""^'^ °^ ^^^'^^ North 
 and^^ri\Tn'd^^ gSL^'/i-^f Ksf ^?h^: 
 
 fn^^Tt^h^m^rS^^^ ^o^rvhii'e '^:M'^^ ^T^ ^^" 
 power in provincial matters, there was in the casfof tL liouor 
 
 saStv fS I ^\ ^'''u °^ '"temperance, with conservative 
 
 tne polls. Ihis was sulificient to give it the <;prr<:»/vnf/o«^ • 
 
 t a t gave to the eye the impression that the whole structure w^? 
 .heir' *f,ur,'.:'te8L"''\t ""' '""'' ""'" "^^i""" ""d^. 
 
 C 
 
 I 
 
 -LI 
 
 I 
 
■^ggammmm 
 
 82 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 tt»i 
 
 herring washed upon the sea beach. The prospect of a drink 
 was their only inspiration, and they both hastened forward to 
 take charge of the traveler's horse, while Muggins also appeared 
 at the door and gave authoritative orders about the care of the 
 beast. Before entering the house the junior counsel crossed the 
 road to the Corners store to learn if pens and ink were kept 
 amongst its miscellaneous stock. 
 
 The country store is a many-sided institution, and one of its 
 functions seems to be to furnish a rendezvous for the intellectual 
 forces of the neighborhood ; a sort of Mars Hill and Roman 
 forum for the Pauls and Mark Antonys of the back townships. 
 There the general blacksmith of the settlement may be found 
 with diurnal regularity, occupying a particular soap box .-^nd 
 holding forth on the failures of the government and the uncer- 
 tainties of science or theology. There is something constitutional 
 in the village tailor's preference for a place on the counter, where 
 he sits cross-legged, from a habit of hio trade or else of cross - 
 purposes with the blacksmith on every question in debate. It is 
 literally and metaphorically the stand-point from which he views 
 the mistakes of the party in power and the wiser policy of the 
 opposition. Though it may inconvenience the real patrons of 
 the shop now and then, the shop-keeper never thinks of disputing 
 possession of the counter with him, for it is onl ■ ^hese neighborly 
 disputations in his place of business that break the monotony of 
 his quiet existence, and he enjoys them quite as much as the dis- 
 putants. 
 
 The quiet of the " Corners " out of doors was partly explained 
 by the gathering th6 J. C. found in the store. The meeting 
 called for that night by Our Candidate had aroused the neighbor- 
 hood, and political discussion had received a new impulse. 
 
 " The country alius goes to the dogs when there's a Grit gov- 
 er'ment in," said the "Corners" blacksmith. "Things wor brisk 
 enough here along about '70, but just as soon as the Grit party 
 come into power the panic 'it us. You can't tell me there ain't 
 nought in the kind 0' gover'ment we hev." 
 
 " Of course," said an over-grown, awkward-looking young fel- 
 low, seated on the molasses barrel; "didn't Muggins put up his 
 new driving-shed and didn't the Methodist folks finish the little 
 church just as soon as the Tories got in again ?" 
 
 This satirical allusion to the beneficent effects of Conservative 
 rule raised a general guffaw from the friends of the other party, 
 and the adyanta^fe was followed up by the "Corners' tailor. 
 
 " Well, all I 'naw is when Bright and Cobden got the corn law 
 repealed — I was in the old country and I 'naw y' see— everybody 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 33 
 
 said it was going to ruin the Hinglish farmer, but it didn't It was 
 S ?n'l*;'"^ ''"°"l^*''^"'^P^"'d ^he poor people of King 
 !iv"e'{aHff f^t did"thrt;-- ''' '"^ '-'' ^'"-- ^' --' ^ P-tei 
 
 barrl^aiin'" ' "/ w«?' over-gro«rn young man on the molasses 
 Darrel, agam I was readmg the other day that the nauoer 
 population of England had fallen from thirty-three to eighteen per 
 
 "" Ym, .hi,?"' ''r '''r^' '^'''J''' ^^^^^ ^^^ introduced •• ^ 
 
 You shut up Jim Bigson," roared the blacksmith reachintr 
 for an ax-handle from a bunch that stood on sale n^ar bv ' wf 
 don t want no boys puttin' in their mouth in this discussion " 
 
 hZTttLTffZ ^""^^i '^' ^[°" ''""'^ ^' ^'^^ by the blacksmith 
 by getting off the molasses barrel in double-quick time and 
 seekmg another seat, was temporarily quieted The blacksmkh 
 was a terror to the boys of the ''Corners," and Jim 4 too ^^^^ 
 
 Z'llt h. '\' ^ >if '" '° ^^"' *° ^'' ^"^«" f^om the store 
 But the blacksmith was not altogether happy with the areu- 
 
 ment as It stood and showed his discomfiture by stigmatizinTal 
 ^It ^,^"!P^'f l't«:,^t"'-e ^s lies, a point which the company 
 or deny " "' ^'" '""'" '' """' '°° ^^''^'''' to appTve 
 
 i 
 
 3 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 AN UNBIASED ELECTOR OP NORTH FLAT. 
 
 In the meantime the proprietor of the Muggins House with 
 ty-:i'T' l^^'' "^^^P" had stabled thf Colonel's horse 
 mi^hrbe. '"^ '^''"'"'"'^ '""'^ '' *° ^h°"^ ^'^^ new.come; 
 
 t«.l^i; ^^'' T^ u^ ^^^? political chaps," said that one of the 
 ZVT^^^ absorbers whose nose shone most resplendent in the 
 
 dtk°/t!?e^rn"e1'rn"ag-'^' ' '''' ^°^^' °^ '^ ^°"'^"'^ ^^ 
 
 thatTt' CoZIiTh TJ^'^fl" ^^'d Muggins. " but it's sthrange 
 wfc 5!.^ "^^ ^''^" * "^ "*^* h^™ ^° The Quane's' over there ' 
 His sold don't put more thrade nor they kin help into my house •' 
 and then, stoppmg short in his comments as the T C came 
 across the road, he followed him into the bar-room with t^e 
 
 double pnrnnsp nf l«.orr.;n~ tu« ,^- _r , • ^^^^u wiiu me 
 
 np.:.: thoV\.^A'u -"■"'."s .t"'; wanta ui HIS guest and the busi- 
 ness that had brought him into the quiet precincts of Muggins- 
 
 J 
 I 
 } 
 
 I 
 
fir' 
 
 ..mSS 
 
 ^g^sim 
 
 84 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 I should like a room where I can do some writing," said the 
 
 the house. Commercial 
 
 J. C. to his host. 
 
 " VVritin' is it ? O yes, bist room 
 traveler, I sup'ose ? " said Muggins, as he made some active ges- 
 tures that served in lieu of going until he had satisfied his curi- 
 osity about the business of his guest. 
 
 "Colonel Toll's horse y' have with you?' continued Muggins. 
 "Colonel's a big man in politics around here." 
 
 " So I believe. And a very fine man, too," said the J. C. 
 " He deserves to be on the winning side every time." 
 
 " Well, he is pretty much, only they did bate him on the War- 
 denship last year. The Colonel felt pretty bad about that. 
 Bflt when it comes to a giner'l 'lection the Colonel's party gin- 
 erally wins. The country's goin' sthrong for Purtickshun, an' 
 I'm glad o' it. Don* know as the Guverminl is alius to blame 
 for hard times, but a change don't do no harrum ; an' since the 
 Grits took up with them tim|)erance fanatics I ain't so much took 
 with 'v.m as I was. Of coorse we fellows what's sellin' whisky ez 
 got to keep right with the chaps what's in power here, but 'tween 
 you and me and the Colonel's horse I'd like to see 'em lick't 
 clean out ov their boots this 'lection." 
 
 The J. C. intimated his anxiety to get to his letter-writing, and 
 Muggins shuffled away to see if the room was ready. 
 
 While he was gone the J. C.'s eye took in the settings of the 
 Muggins House bar. The testheticism which at this time was 
 pervading the social atmosphere in an unusual degree in the 
 more cultured society of the cities did not stop there. The 
 inter-communication between town and country was so easy and 
 frequent even in North Flat, that the ripple of every current 
 social fancy reached the rural population with more or less force. 
 Muggins, whose contempt for what he called religious cant and 
 hypocrisy was very pronounced, was perhaps quite unconscious 
 of how far he had become a victim of a more modern affectation 
 just then sweeping over the country. The girls had taken to 
 wearing sunflowers in their belts, and Muggins had half a dozen 
 gorgeous sunflowers stuck in bottles behind the bar. The craze 
 for needle-work scripture texts, framed in rustic wood, had at 
 this time about exhausted itself, and it was .rather the receding 
 tide of popular fancy that had left one of these stranded on the 
 Muggins bar. It bore the spiritual quotation 
 
 "1 %n^ %\tt %uf% lour." 
 
 The daughters of the house had evidently got tired of reading 
 the pious platitude and cast it aside, and Muggins finding it, had 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 riting," said the 
 
 8S 
 
 tinned Muggins, 
 
 added il to the aesthetic furnishings of his bar. It now expressed 
 the sp.raual longings of the brace of worthies we Slve Len at 
 the bar-room door. A pair of chalk angels had got into the 
 doubtful company of a cut-glass decanter with a silver chain 
 about Its neck supporting a metal label inscribed " Rye Whiskey " 
 
 Icf \Th/Vr 'Y '•"" .""P'^' ''^' P'-"^^^'>' '"»«"ded for ef- 
 „.„:/^i. / •', ? °^«^^^'ed '^ter on that the bottle customers 
 
 liL? 1 1 • ^ ^'''f S'"''*-' covering a collection of bright- 
 ?iT fnH ^''\'"^l^ °" 'l^^ head of a mud-bespattered liq^uor 
 r^nini ''"■'^'? ^'^^ °""'" ^"' °" ^he topmost shelf, amongs 
 a goodly array of empty cigar-boxes, was a badly preserved 
 ulatbn ^PP'-oP'-iate symbol of 'late hours and bad arlS 
 
 " I hope when the Colonel's party gets in they'll eive us some 
 Purtickshun agin the cranks what's thryin' to rtUn our bus nes^' 
 sa.d^Mugg.ns. returning at this juncture to escort his guest ?o his 
 
 nnl^n^^r 1 Vou hotel men a pretty good share of protection 
 now in the large hcense fee ? And it is alleged that hardly any- 
 body but a good Gnt like yourself can obtaiS a license from the 
 present local government." 
 
 " Yes that's all right, that is," said Muggins, stopping on the 
 stairs and turning half-around in order that his guest might be 
 impressed with the insincerity of his Grit affiliations byl pecu 
 bar facial contortion; "but this Prohibish * • ^ ^ - 
 
 un Act is carryin' the 
 It 'd shut us all out o' 
 
 -„ -W..WV.. iwii , uui uus rroniD 
 Purtickshun ide too far, don't you see ? 
 doin' a legitimate bis'ness, so it would " 
 " I see." said the J. C. as he rolled up the curtain of the dingy 
 
 u ed tnZJVV^'''' ''^V'"^'- ^'""^^^ ^°">e pieces "f brick 
 nnnnti^v nf . "^""^ °P'" !'"°™ ""^^'^ ^^e bed, and poured a 
 Sbowl "■°"' ^ handleless pitcher into a' cracked 
 
 .M^r ^"^v^ "P to the comforts Our Candidate was enjoying 
 at the Colonels, and that reflection and the necessity for gett nf 
 ome letters written put his guest out of the mood for encourag! 
 .ng the garrulous Mr Muggins. Seeing at last this uncom- 
 municative mood of the stranger, he. with strong assurances of 
 his desire to please, soon left his guest to himself 
 
 Ihe last rays of the long summer evening had ceased to oen- 
 etrate with any clearness the dirty little window panes of^ the 
 Muggins House when the rattle nf mrn.^e wheH- A'-H .' ^" 
 
 peered oul. It „as Our Candidate's carriage, and the friends 
 
 i 
 
 k 
 
^' 
 
 36 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 
 i: r 
 
 \^ 
 
 i^.li 
 
 who had been busy arranging the hall over Muggins' driving shed 
 for the meeting about to take place, flocked around the vehicle. 
 
 The first visit of the party's new standard-bearer to Muggins' 
 Corners was in itself an event, but surprise was added to curi- 
 osity when Col. Toll was found to have accompanied the Reform 
 Candidate up to the Corners meeting. The crowd about the 
 Muggins House grew in numbers until everybody within a large 
 area of that portion of North Flat seemed to be present. But it 
 was not so. A few of the bitterest partisans of the other party 
 kept their places within or around the door of "The Queen's, 
 refusing to let their curiosity get the better of their prejudices, 
 while, they sought to frown down the eagerness of the villagers, 
 irrespective of party, to see and hear Our Candidate. 
 
 The J. C. reached the carriage in time to note host Muggins' 
 bewildered condition on being unexpectedly called upon to re- 
 ceive and entertain two such distinguished guests as the party 
 candidate and Colonel Toll. His welcoming remarks were in- 
 tended to convey the assurance that Muggins and Mugginsville 
 were unanimous for the Reform Candidate. But it was evident 
 that Muggins, in the trite phraseology of the boys, was " rattled." 
 There were two things that rather disconcerted Muggins. They 
 were the presence of Colonel Toll in the company of the Reform 
 Candidate, and the relation which seemed to exist between the 
 supposed commercial traveler to whom he had thoughtlessly un- 
 bosomed himself and the Candidate. The combination was 
 altogether too deep for a brain the natural dullness of which 
 had been increased by years of liberal indulgence in stimulants, 
 
 W hen it reached the ears of the little group of individuals of 
 pronounced conservative opinions over at "The Queen's," that 
 Col. Toll had arrived in the same carriage with the Reform Can- 
 didate, the excitement was intense. Those who had been the 
 self-appointed delegates to carry the irritating news across the 
 road, felt called upon to remain and argue the supposed reasons 
 of the Colonel's conversion, and the result was a rough-and- 
 tumble fight, which, after the campaign was over, it was whispered, 
 would warrant the Grit Government in suspending the license of 
 the Tory tavern. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE MEETING AT MUQGmSVILLB. 
 
 The Mugginsville hall, in which all the gatherings of a secnUr 
 nature at the Corners took place, was the lecond sTory of a driv- 
 ing shed attached to the Muggins hotel • i-h^ IZl X . t- 
 Bigson had in mind when he iSlanced tt^nd^^tWd activ t/ '"? 
 the country under a Tory regime. The seadng o he hi Lj 
 been done with heavy planks laid upon a few tools and backless 
 Cornl^sTtot " T^o'entr'^H Packfug-boxes borrowed' frl' he' 
 ,„?fl I ; • ° ^"'"^^ ^^^^^^ and a very weak-legged table 
 
 with one leaf missing, adorned the improvised Srra A 
 
 cS;r^° h \'^^' ^^°"^ ^^^°"g^ *he smoky eclipse of a cracked 
 chimney, shed its contracted rays in the immediate 4infty of 
 the table, while around the wood ceiled walls a nL of toL 
 candles held in position by nails drTven upwtd ti^^ugh bbck" 
 of wood that served as candle brackets, shed the r melfow radi 
 ance over other parts of the hall. meuow radi« 
 
 It must have been some months since the last entertainment 
 
 walls were now turned to a decided brown, and the inscription- 
 
 "We won't go home till 
 
 has fallen away at its farther extremity. But an inventive minH 
 that had come early to the meetingf had turned the decTved 
 remnant to account by scrawling with a charred stick from ^h. 
 disconsolate-looking stove, the additional words : 
 
 we have put a big nail in Smith's coffin !" 
 
 it wat^'nnfV^"^ ""^^ ^'•""^ '^'^■^^ '" g^"^"g the meeting together. 
 It was not a large one m voting strength whan assembled A 
 
 count of noses by one of the old residents showed Tha^^^^^^ 
 were just sixteen actual voters present. The r^st were voun^ 
 
 Sr^o i '^' r.'^^^°'"']°°^' ^h°^« adolescent zeal was not ac3 
 ing to knowledge, and who were bent on getting the most nosslbt 
 
 Tim BlfifSOn. nvprcrrnnrr, or.f1 f- — U -■_ _ ,i- . . 
 
 deep thoughts on-politliralirslor^a S whfch rnkd^ himT: 
 exception among the boys. It might Lve b^en noSced orthis 
 
 [87] 
 
 t 
 i 
 
 .1 
 
 I 
 
 .» 
 I 
 > 
 
 < 
 
38 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 occasion that instead of being one of the gang who awoke the 
 echoes in the back end of the hall, he had taken a seat near the 
 front and close under the wall, where he watched and waited im- 
 patiently for the Corners meeting to begin. 
 
 As Our Candidate passed through the assembly to a place on 
 the platform he heard some one say : " D'y' moind the silk hat 
 ov him ?" and the response was : " Yes ; he's too toney for us 
 Nor' Flatters. " 
 
 The preponderating nationality of Mugginsville and vicinity 
 may be inferred from its name, and in order that there might be 
 no injustice to Ireland on the free soil of America, an Irish 
 chairman must be chosen for the meeting. There was an unani- 
 mous call for Col. Toll. 
 
 But the Colonel had lived too many years to let his zeal in a 
 new cause get the better of his judgment, and not even the gentle 
 persuasions of Our Candidate could induce him to make himself 
 unduly conspicuous at this stage of his new departure. Having 
 said sufficient, however, to show his respect for the Colonel, as 
 well as to satisfy himself that there was no hypocritical hesitation 
 in the old gentleman's declination, Our Candidate had much 
 pleasure in suggesting the name of Patrick McKicker for the 
 position. 
 
 Patrick, who was with the Reformers in this campaign as much 
 for the satisfaction of being opposed to the reigning Government 
 as from any fixed political preferences, was loud and pronounced 
 in his views in proportion as his vanity was gratified, and he ac- 
 cepted the nomination with the customary assurances that there 
 were many others present who could fill the chair more acceptably 
 than he could. 
 
 " They all knew he wasn't no speaker. They all knew what 
 they were there for. It was to 'lict their candidate an' upsit the 
 cor upt an' incaipable Gover'mint at Otaway. If the b'ys in the 
 back part of the meetin' didn't kape sthill, he'd make 'em. With 
 these few remarks he had much pleasure in introducing Mr. 
 Guilford, the next mimber of Parlemint for North Flat." 
 
 This assumption of honors not yet won, was heartily applauded 
 by Patrick's neighbors, and Our Candidate rose to address the 
 meeting. The boys who had been temporarily restrained by Mr. 
 McKicker, recognizing that this was a moment for obtaining re- 
 lief for their pent-up feelings, exerted both hands and feet in a 
 good-natured effort to approve the chairman's remarks, so far as 
 they referred to the Candidate. 
 
 Our Candidate said he was pleased to address a meeting of 
 such large and intelligent proportions, and it would no doubt 
 
 (/! 
 
 |i 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 39 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 have been more so if the notice of meeting had not been so 
 
 Whether a longer notice would have perceptibly increased the 
 ntelhgence of the meeting, appeared to the junior counsel ques! 
 nonable, though it might have done something for its number 
 
 luVcZir ^T '°™^^^'"S in the atmolphere th^t caused 
 Our Candidate, such a stickler for exactness in speech to make 
 this bull and overlook the inaccuracy; or it may have been 
 ZnK.- "; V ' t'^ T"^^" '^''^ °" his mind/as to how he 
 
 Sck narf oTth^h^n^ °" -^^ ^"? ^"^^"°" ^^ ^°"^^ ^^iot in the 
 back part of the hall was inspired to call out, " How about the N. 
 f. ( ±Jut, If there had been any such evil eenius nrespnt th^ 
 
 for'mor? h^'^'^V'^' '^°"^^^^ ^^' ^^ the'sp'ake? tXd on 
 for more than an hour uninterrupted by anything but an approv- 
 ing hear ! hear ! from the front seats, and an occasionalburslof 
 applause from the boys in the back part of the meeting! 
 
 When he had finished, the Chairman rose and remarked that 
 "anybody what didn't like our views had better gkout as we 
 proposed to do some organizin'." ^ ' 
 
 This remark Our Candidate felt called upon to revise and tone 
 
 &eat1heSr'''°''^Hr'™P''^^^^? "^^'"^^ should take urn 
 Drage at the Chairman's blunt way of putting it 
 
 It was very late when the "organizin" " was complete and the 
 meeting at Mugginsville broke up. ^ompieie, ana the 
 
 One of the well-to-do farmers of the township, knowing the 
 character of the accommodations given at the MugeinrHouse 
 invited Our Candidate and the J. C. home with hT ami the 
 heartiness with which we accepted his invitation Is only tamdv 
 expressed by our thanks. Of course it was understood^tha^we 
 thh3^M '°-'"' ^""^ '^^ "'.Sht. and breakfast in the morning 
 Sfy nextlT"^h-"'^ '^' ^ " ""^^ '^^^'- °"^ ^"^ paid accord? 
 hft the Vlrvn.. P""°''^y ^^' rewarded by the assurance 
 Inrf fhn. .S ^ P^'*^- ^^^^y' '^"^ '"°'"^ fo^ drinks than the Grits 
 and that the proprietor of "The Queen's" had taken t^iik 
 
 Z\^J":\T T^^^' ^hile Muggins had taken but $13 '75 
 By paying a liberal compensation for Muggins' Hall, however 
 this breach was healed. ' nowever. 
 
 w 
 
 
 I 
 > 
 
 
I 
 
 ■0. 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 LOVE AND P0LITIC8. 
 
 "The course of true love never did run smooth." It is such a 
 blind, impulsive current that it takes the most unexpected chan- 
 nels, defying all the unwritten laws of social legislation, and being 
 simply a law unto itself. Choosing ever some untraced and 
 untraversed bed, its susceptible volume is continually meeting 
 with obstructions so utterly opposed to its own quality that 
 shallows, eddies, falls and rapids are many and oft recurring. 
 
 Our Candidate had always excused himself for being indifferent 
 on the subject of matrimony by fancying that he was too niuch 
 occupied with his profession to give any time to the silly business 
 of making love. One of the most improbable things, to his mind 
 a month ago, would have been that in the heat of a political 
 campaign, and he a Candidate, he would be found talking soft 
 nonsense to a farmer's pretty daughter. But Love has all sea- 
 sons for his own, and prankish Cupid had chosen this extraordi- 
 nary one to enslave our disciple of Blackstone. Wrapt up in a 
 chrysalis of dusty journals and legal documents, engaged in the 
 professional arraignment of some questionable claim at law, he 
 had seen wonderfully little of the butterflies of city society for a 
 man of his social standing, and he might have continued indiffer- 
 ent to the impoverishment of his social nature until it practically 
 ceased to have a social side, had it not been for this entire change 
 of scene and occupation. This transference into unconvenlional 
 surroundings and companionship with people who are not sup- 
 posed to be ever intent on match-making had caught him off his 
 guard. He had been taken at blissful unawares, and he did not 
 yet know the strength of the influences Nora exerted over him. 
 
 The fact that the Colonel accompanied Our Candidate to 
 the Mugginsvil'e meeting was the best possible evidence that 
 what the latter professedly drove around by the Colonel's to 
 learn had proved satisfactory. That the call had been otherwise 
 pleasing to him was only a surmise until he informed the junior 
 counsel that he had accepted the Colonel's invitation for both of 
 them to spend the following Sunday at "Wellington Gate." 
 Then it was apparent that the Colonel's home was to Our Candi- 
 date as an oasis in the political desert of North Flat ; a place 
 where he could rest comparatively undisturbed by the hordes of 
 political Arabs, who, under the guise of helps and assistants, 
 
 [40] 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 41 
 
 s, and he did not 
 
 of six days and as niany nX'of 1]?^^°'''' ^'T '^'^ ^^^'S^^^ 
 level of political smauJalk aJd [^'."neT':^,^"''' """'" ^^^ ^^^^^ 
 looked more and more like a dehSlJ n ^^^u"'' ^"^'^""^ ^^at 
 Face to face with hi opnonem on l'.''^^' ^r '^^ ^I'^'^^^'^hed it. 
 scheme to counterac one^hid l v^h '''" ' '''^"'u"^' ""' ^^^P i" « 
 
 fatuation about politics^ that'al'o'rbed ^r^lti:jZ'V''- 
 qinous part of hynocriticql r^o-^r^ t , t^'aymg the obse- 
 
 mindedUkwood ^an ordeS. 0^.""'^';^ ^"^ ^'"^P'^" 
 the support of an ignorant or nS-- '^°^"^^' agreement for 
 with disgust Can vassinl .H J ^'' u ''°^^'"' ^" ^^^'-^ burdened 
 
 organizatiofmeetln^SvLfnlhT.^fP''''"^" ""^ '" ^he 
 got for rest and reflection wLf^' r^ f^^^»loments he ever 
 
 What wonder if SuS and Nora T.ir ''''"""'' ^''"^ ^^^r^' 
 
 had an indescribable charm fo^ 1 fm^'wh'J''' T"^''"J^ ^^'^ 
 moments of pause durinT fh.\ , ' wonder, if in the 
 
 thoughts were mo t pronTtl ttn^^^H "^H^- "°"'^^^^^ ^^''^'' hi^ 
 Gatef" and a few hours' rest for m nH^ *^''-f^'^"of "Wellington 
 
 of a pretty and intelligent Jd in .n? °^^ '" '^'' P^^^^"^^ 
 home? iciiigent girl m an unconventional country 
 
 of?:.;:Spro^:s ;;;? s::^;;;^^''rV"'^^^°"^"- ^^ ^^^^^ome 
 
 had always regarded as ^ I v^f^ " f ^u ^'i"" ^^' Candidate 
 politics, ^r an? ^ollTa^S^onTn^^^^^^^ 
 head agamst the veranda rail in maiden medi'tation fh.. ^/""^ 
 afternoon, could she have known 'that she wh.Sk • • "^'''"" 
 concerned as her father in Mc . • *° ^^ ^^ intimately 
 
 taken off her apron and t?ed to dZlT' ^''''''^^ ^'""^^^^y ^^^e 
 hair, as she was wont to fiat. h^""^^ ^^'^. '°^^ ^P"^^^ «"* of her 
 that' came up fro^ tL^^lak^^ lo eTn ^^^^^^^^^^ Aies 
 
 Shri"n^o^ws fhaTlntgl-Jrifth^^^ fi-Tm^k" Hti^s'o/cup-i^: 
 determination ^"'"S^"'^^'" '^ '^^ «"rest way of increasing his 
 
 ouf ott SlonXr"esen^'Tnd'r ^r^l ^^°' ^" ^^^'^-^ 
 recurring subject of Sohtics .nH M '^'^ .^-^^""g °^ ^^e oft- 
 
 was growing ndifferent to Vh.? f°'^. '°u" ^'^^^^^^ed that he 
 
 That^vas pr'obabTthT:elU\: , If^er^d 'in i'lrod""^^"^- 
 Yet she wou d have 'efiKPrl t^ o^u^ persistea m introducing u. 
 
 pending election. 
 
 He was as yet unaware 
 of J. Jones Pinkerton 
 
 of the jealousy he had aroused in th 
 and John Swanson, but Nora 
 
 4 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 e minds 
 was aware that 
 
 C'S 
 
a 
 
 42 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 a drive along the thickly settled town-line would be advertisement 
 enough for all North Flat to know, ere another week passed, who 
 her father's Sunday guest was. Indeed it would be difficult to 
 tell which traveled the faster, the news of the Colonel's political 
 flop, or the attentions of the Liberal candidate to his daughter. 
 Equally difficult would it have been to say how public opinion 
 stood on the perplexing question whether the Colonel's apostasy 
 was attributable to Our Candidate's attentions to Nora, or Our 
 Candidate's attentions to Nora the outcome of the Colonel's con- 
 version to a new political faith. But it was a question farther 
 reaching in its interests for the people of North Flat_ than any of 
 the political issues of the campaign, for it was an issue that in- 
 terested the women. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 GETTING THE STRENGTH OP THE PARTY. 
 
 "If they don't use money we've got 'em!" exclaimed Bob 
 Saunders, chairman of the Central Reform Association, in coun- 
 cil assembled at Catchemtown. _ 
 
 The checked lists had been sent in from all the polling divis- 
 ions, showing how each elector might reasonably be expected to 
 vote, and there had been a big call for a general meeting of the 
 Association for a final summing up. 
 
 Before the meeting got down to business, little groups formed 
 here and there to discuss what they had heard from opposition 
 sources, and tell what they had each done to confirm the waver- 
 ing or win over new friends. 
 
 Our Candidate had got in for this meeting, and was much 
 sought after by his friends, in order to inform him of a hundred 
 rumors, good and bad, from as many sources, and to modestly 
 explain the part the rumor-bearers had acted in devotion to his 
 
 cause. , . , , , It 
 
 Ezekiel Moore was one of our friends who always had some 
 good news, though it as invariably had a tinge of. disappointment 
 
 " bid y'hear about Squire Morton, over to 'the Forks' } " asked 
 Zeke, his face beaming with the surprise he had in store for Our 
 Candidate. 
 
 " No. What about him ?" 
 
 " Well, he's come over to our side." 
 
Delation, in coun- 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 43 
 
 " How do you know?" asked Our r-i^^.-j * t. i , 
 pleasant way'of pinning hif fn'o^ii'L^do?; ^^ ^L^ti IrT ."n"d 
 
 be't hi.fcat;'""^ "'''' '^-^'- ^— favorrb^^Tht^Light 
 
 GolI^nLnttad^rn^'^a'roS'ih-"^-*'^^ '' '''^' '^'"^ ^^- 
 country." ^°°'' *^'"S ^" gerrymandering the 
 
 '' O^n It- ••".''''? -^^'^ Candidate, impatiently. 
 Oh, nuthin," sam Zeke. ^ 
 
 ''Humph !" said Our Candidate 
 said'zfk"' •'°'" ^^'^^-P-"'^ going to vote with us this time," 
 "Sif r"'if''f ^^'^ *'""^ '°-" ''•sked Our Candidate. 
 
 ^^ Well, he talked kind o' favorable " 
 
 ;; What does he say?" asked Our Candidate. 
 
 stroni'" ' '""" ^"" ^''''''^'y ^"'^ P"^ the points to him pretty 
 
 - wli'K ^^^^ Our Candidate, inquiringly. 
 
 Well, he said he'd think it over," said Zeke 
 ;;just so," said Our Candidate ' 
 
 J7J''JT "''8'"'"=''i''0" Candidate, laconically; and as he 
 Eelf'toAe J.r' ""' ^'"■' "P"''"'=^' E-kiel ad"dreLd 
 
 hadn't' bSrhimTo'"! k„'i'°",l ^^*=°". " "" ""■" fe"<»- 
 had a littleSoney toToA t?th"' h:'co«iS'"™'''- ■",' """' 
 
 S wi„; too" ^' ' "'* ^"^' ™P'"'"'' "^"-l »■= =>'= going 
 
 u2i^l^ f d»o";S, ttl?S:" -^^ ^^^^' -^ - 
 
 bv''°?4S'l'?. "' ^^i i¥ ">»"'"!! to order just at this j„„«„r. 
 The withdrawal ot Bob Saunders would have bfen fooW upon 
 
 i 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 as a calamity next in its effect to the resignation of the Candidate 
 himself, and this announcement caused profo\ind silence for the 
 space of about a minute. ' ^^ . 
 
 " We'll take op the voter's list for the towc," said Bob, in com- 
 mittee of the whole, and every man mark his list w'-en a name 
 is called out as he thinks the man will vote ; then we'll compare 
 estimates and see how we stand" 
 
 "Absalom Ayers?" called the Chairman. 
 
 "He votes 'Guilford,'" said a voice in the back part of the 
 
 room. 
 
 "John Brown ?•" called the Chairman. 
 "Gone to Winnipeg to buy town lots." 
 "James Bacon?" called the Chainiian. 
 "Worst Tory in town," said a squeaky voice in the corner. 
 " Put him down ' Smith,' " said the Chairman. 
 "John Connors?" ^^ 
 
 " Exodusted with another nun's 'vile, 
 
 "Might o' put it off till after the election," suggested the 
 Chairman. 
 
 "James Davidson?" 
 
 "Reform! but his wife's Tory," came from a crushed voice 
 near the window. 
 
 " Put him down ' doubtful,' " said the Chair. 
 "William Lucky?" 
 " Tory ; but he has no vote." 
 
 "That's lucky for us !" said a voice in >^ack part of the house. 
 "Mark him ' to be sworn,' " said the Chairman. 
 "Patrick Murphy?" 
 
 " Got no vote, but he's with us," announced the meeting, 
 " Chairman of this division will see that his vote's got in. Make 
 a note of it right now," ordered the Chairman. 
 
 In this way each division list was gone over, many names 
 eliciting some such comment as the above, but each holder of a 
 voters' list marking it according to his own notion of how each 
 man's vote would be cast. ^ -j ^ i 
 
 " I make this division twenty majority for our side, said Z,eke 
 Moore, who, during the passage of good-natured comments, had 
 returned to his naturally hopeful frame of mind. 
 The meeting laughed incredulously. 
 " I make it nine against us," said Jim Brooks. 
 Against this, too, the meeting demurred as a bad estimate. 
 '< T make it exactlv up-and-np," said Mike Cuseton. And to 
 that'the meeting generally assented, as neither so hopeful as to 
 dull our energies nor so depressing as to discourage us. But the 
 
back part of the 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 45 
 
 heads of the meeflng had their own opinion about the count and 
 gave the enemy a majority of nine ' 
 
 crJl'n '""^"''"g '^P of the totals from other parts of the riding 
 gave Our C and.date a majority of one hundred in roimd nurnber.^ 
 and It was this conclusion that called forth the reimrk of R^i' 
 Saunders with which this cluapter op ns . "If hordon't use 
 money we ve got em ! i . n ui^y uon t use 
 
 n the corner. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 AWAKENING TENDER MEMORIES. 
 
 Long after the meeting had closed, Our Candidate and his 
 jumor counsel sat m the bed room of their hotel tlorirg with 
 a quantity of correspondence. iduonng wiui 
 
 ''Now I want to write a letter that calls for special diplomacy 
 
 som/Ze"' ''tI.^" '^^r'^?'-^^^' "'^^" '"^^ -°^k had progressed 
 ZTu There's a highly respected resident of our city who 
 
 has shown a deep interest in getting me elected into the Irng- 
 
 w h me at scS . "i .^^^"'ons. He was a North Flat boy 
 
 rnthecitvnow Th""^ "V ^"''?" '" ^'^^ Methodist church 
 m tne city now. There are five or six of those damned ' saved ' 
 
 ca tin^ Tvo,;" H^^^^y^^'"^, ^ho have religious scru^fes about 
 casting a vote; becomes down and exhorts them occasionally 
 If he would come down and do a little political exhort W £ 
 would probably come out and vote for me. I must w e\ m " 
 and the aspirant for political honors wrote as folTows . ' 
 
 M^ Shadrach Quakerson, London. 
 
 in my llfLTST^^J'"'' ^""^ ""' ^'i "'"^^ «»^o^" « '^eeP interest 
 
 as I s^ho" IdrStl'Sa'aCarfel^^^^^ ""^ always apVciated 
 
 than you— "«tveaiway8 leit a good deal more on that subject 
 
 had^eacS^hi""^ it ! that will not do." he ejaculated, when he 
 
 

 46 
 
 OUR CANDID'VTE. 
 
 ! 
 
 annroval of a good conscience. If you could come down and say a 
 word in a casual way to your brethren of MartyrviUe. I am sure they 
 would Bce their way clear to coming out and votmg. If you do I shall 
 remember it with life long gratitude. Bmcerely yours, 
 
 TaoMAS Guilford. 
 
 " That will have to do," he commented, as he affixed his sig- 
 nature. " Now, we must have some music for our meeting up in 
 Satanville. Success does not depend on an appeal to intelli- 
 gence up there. We must work on the boys' emotions, I'll 
 write to Dodger for some of his political revival hymns, and get 
 Shucks to come down and lead the singing," and he wrote : 
 
 J. D. DODGBH, Esq., Barrister, 
 
 Toronto." 
 My Dear Dodger— Send me a couple hundred of your campaign 
 songs, and engage Professor Shucks to come dowri and lead the singing 
 for us at the Satanville meeting next Friday night. He will find the 
 place when he gets here. Easy to find, they say. Faciha eat descenaun 
 Avemi. I am going to win. /ours truly, losi. 
 
 "There's my old school chum, Jeremiah Soemn, has a vote 
 down here. I wonder if- he would come and give a fellow a 
 boost if I were to write to him. How running for Parliament does 
 awaken old friendships!" And he wrote: 
 
 Jeremiah Solemn, Esq., Barrister, 
 
 Contentionville. 
 My Dear Jbury— I don't know whether ago has brought wisdom, 
 but as I remember you at school you were one of tho worst Tories m 
 our Form I have been chosen as the Grit standard bearer in North 
 Flat, and I see from the voters' list that you have a vote in this ndmg. 
 I shall want all the votes I can get. Don't you think that for old ac- 
 quaintance sake you could throw your political principles to the 'vinds, 
 and help to send the country to the dogs by coming down and voting 
 for me? If you can't do that. I admonish you, by all the love you bear 
 an old schoolmate, that you stay at home and let the country go to the 
 devil of its own accord. Yours as ever, Tnos. Guilford. 
 
 " There's another old friend, or rather an old friend of my 
 father's, that I must write to before I quit," said Our Candidate, 
 and he wrote : 
 
 To Major Foundlino, 
 
 Ivy Cottage, Raleighville. 
 My Dear Major Foundling-I have just leaded from a mutual 
 friend that you were an intimate friend of my father s, and that you 
 have alwavs held him in kindly remembrance. My father died in my 
 early youth and many of his friends are uiikaown to me, put i cuuuot 
 be regardless of those who respect his memory, and I shall do myself 
 the honor of calling upon you as soon as I can get into your part of the 
 
N 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 47 
 
 ir Parliament does 
 
 f!,m"HnteTS for%1frtSftt TnT.S"* ^•"t" "'^ Con.lidate in the Ke. 
 lorin iniereet tor >(orth *lat, and although I am to . voii hold difF«r.>ni- 
 
 ^S/nrM '"'"^' r" ™.Y,"."^ 'l'^"' ''«" impoBsibieSnl todo some 
 thmg for the son of an old; friend. Very respectfully yours, 
 
 Thomas Qcilfobd. 
 "I must write," said Our Candidate, "to Hannibal Slope, the 
 
 liZtrrt 'h' M 'r' ^^^""''1'^'^ Association, and ask'lim 
 whether 1 imothy McQueer or Solomon Touchy is Chairman of 
 No 10 pollmg sub-divsion. I want to find ofit how they are 
 getting along .n No. ,o, and if I address the wrong man as 
 Chairman there II be — ' '' 
 
 The exhausted laborer for political distinction stretched his 
 weary limbs from his chair, and was asleep 
 
 '^^A ^' !rvT-*''-''^^u'''"", ''°'' ^ "foment as he slept, and solilo- 
 ^« ^^^ u , } '"' /^ 7^^^ '^^ politicians mean when they say ' The 
 office should seek the man, and not the man the office '" 
 
 Then he shook Our Candidate gently by the shoulder, and ad- 
 monished him to come to bed. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 A MIDNIGHT MISSION. 
 
 Somebody has said that many people might lengthen their days 
 by spending less time in bed. It would be at least equally saee 
 and axiomatic to remark that if people kept their eyes open they 
 would see more. If the people of Rover township had not been 
 in the habit of retiring so early even in times of a political cam- 
 paign, some of them might have seen at midnight on the night 
 fcdowing the incidents recorded in the preceding chapter an 
 enclosed carriage and a pair of horses standing on the roadside 
 at a point on one of their well traveled roads where a large 
 wooden cross painted a ghostly white extended its symbolic arms 
 into the thick darkness that just then surrounded it. The night 
 was rainy and the rain was accompanied by some gentle peals uf 
 thunder and a few flashes of lightning which now and then lit un 
 the roadway with its fitful glare. In proximity with the cross and 
 carnage^ but^ still considerably farther up the road, somewhat 
 surrounded by the few houses that formed the settlement, stood 
 the parish church of St. Yusef's and the vicinal residence of the 
 parish Driest 
 
 Although it has ever been the province of the religious teacher 
 to mcrease men s faith in the supernatural and the tendency of 
 
 * 
 
48 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 
 ' 't '-J, 
 
 If 
 
 »M\ 
 
 the politician to lessen it, strangely enough the one has ever been 
 found using the other to promote each other's supremacy. The 
 object of both has been to rule.and the centralization of power is 
 always aided by adding the terrors of the unknown to the pre- 
 dominant forces of the known. The governing power of the 
 church centers in the presumed supernatural power behind it, and 
 every step in the separation of churcii and state has been a step 
 of skepticism in religion. Conservatism in politics goes hand in 
 hand with conservatism in religion, and radicalism in politics is 
 the continual forerunner of liberalism in creeds. Where there are 
 exceptions to this they are accidents and incongruities and have 
 been dictated by policy, not followed from conviction. 
 
 Father Innocent, the parish priest of St. Yusef's, must have 
 chosen his ecclesiastical name with reference to some other ob- 
 ject than expressing his own character. Perhaps some beloved 
 Pater or Preceptor of his youth had given a charm to the name 
 that overshadowed its inappropriateness when taken by himself; 
 or perhaps some elder brother in his priestly order, of greater ex- 
 perience than he, had suggested it as a happy disguise for the 
 fresh postulant who he saw would not always take things for 
 what they seemed. He was yet young, of fine physique and 
 strong expressive face, one in whose presence not only those who 
 regarded him as their spiritual guide but every ordinary mind was 
 constrained to mentally acknowledge inferiority. There was an 
 intellectual penetration that made itself apparent in his features; 
 and a consciousness of strength iu face and figure was accom- 
 panied with a frankness of manner that won at once a timid and 
 ingenuous nature of his own faith, and would go a long way toward 
 disarming the educated prejudices of a heretic. The candid 
 mind felt safe in his confidence, while the cunning one could not 
 fail to be impressed with thedithcully it would find in hoodwink- 
 ing him. 
 
 He had a keen sense of the fitness of things, and would no 
 doubt have preferred to rule men by rea on of his superior in- 
 telligence rather than by the authority of an ecclesiastical system. 
 But his judgment was always stronger than his emotions, and with 
 him the practical always took precedence over the ideal. He 
 would have been a reformer if he could have reformed and ruled 
 at the same time, but the influence he wielded demanded that he 
 preserve a conservative attitude both in politics and religion, 
 while in heart he sympathized with that individuality which casts 
 off unwarranted authority and bears the imputation of infidel and 
 radical while it gives to the world all it has of broadening intelli- 
 gence. 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 49 
 
 When the transplanted ritualism of Great Britain tried to estal,. 
 l.sh Itself as the govermnK power in the most free and enl ghtene^^^ 
 province of British North America, in a form expressed nh 
 term "the o d Family Compact/' it marked out a Hnc of politic U 
 distinction that quite accurately defines the two parties of hi 
 country still, though the broadening spirit of the times has been 
 conformed to by slight changes of name. Conservatism has 
 become Liberal-Conservatism, and Radicalism has become 
 Liberal-Reform, which opposite compounds make very a ,S e 
 
 Ixpedi-enc!;. '' "'''''' " ^"'"''''^ ""'"' '^^ "" princil^Fe but 
 
 Our Candidate had taken the measure of his man too well to 
 
 propose any intrigue for securing the support of the peop e over 
 
 whom Father Innocent exercised the 'potent authority of his 
 
 u?- k'^'.^° '^'^'^ ""^ ^'^'^'^ '^•"ds. they knew exac Iv 
 what each other s influence was worth in churcl .nd sUte oir 
 Candidate had nothing to offer but the inrtuencc .f an ndividual 
 ol wealth and professional standing and a mind sufficiently rce 
 rem inherited and educational bias to enable him to do ju t y 
 between opposing elements. ju^uy 
 
 Father Innocent was too' wise to do anything in direct opposi- 
 tion to the political party in natural harmony with tlie relisious 
 system of which he was a part. The prejudices of the mises are 
 not more potent than the liberality if the few in the onirun 
 else progress would be at an end. But |„r all the purposes of 
 sustaining personal or party inHuen u is oetter to S with 
 the old than move with the new 
 
 hifrtr""^ Fatherlnnocent cou i sympathize with the new while 
 tL S K.'^''",''""^'^ to harmonize with the old, it would be to 
 fodo r h"^hT''^' '"^ -'^'''''''^' t^his o^n temperament 
 minH. TV, ^^"^ not attempt to disguise this from intelligent 
 
 Sinamfdnil? '^"''^'"' ""Z^"'^ '"'^'^"^ «"^h ^« villain 
 T.H \i .t "'^''^■''°"/'''''^"°" between him and Our Candidate 
 Indeed there was in ,11 he did the degree of consciemiousneS 
 hat goes with doing . hat is practically L best, not wh" is idea ly 
 „ I,- ;u- -^'^^ gently resented the supposed necessity for 
 
 Our cLdid J'-'' "' "'•^?'^^^' '^"^ ^^^^ good-natured St o 
 Our Candidate s excuse that it was made on the way from a meet- 
 
 ng to save time and not of purpose aforethought Wh^nthl 
 
 interview ended ,t was simply understood that there would be no 
 
 great deviation from the normal status of the large Catholic vote of 
 
 pX^ser fn'^r^en^eTt"'^^ '' ^''' '^^ ^'^ oppositeTa./ 
 
 The late visitors to the parochial residence had just reached 
 
 Si! 
 
 f 1 
 
 I 
 
 \ I 
 
50 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 their carriage and were climbing in when a mild flash of lightning 
 revealed an approaching vehicle. Our Candidate, gathering 
 hastily his coat-collar and neckerchief about his ears.stepped back 
 into the shadow of the large cross and falling on his knees on the 
 rain-softened earth, held his muffler about his bowed face with 
 one hand while he reverently crossed and prodded himself with 
 the other. It was well he did so, for the passing vehicle con- 
 tained none other than the Tory candidate and J. Jones Pinker 
 ton on their way to Father Innocent. They were not in search 
 of absolution themselves, but they sympathized with the tender 
 conscience that had felt constrained to come through rain and 
 mud and darkness to bow at the wayside shrine. 
 
 Thus do the gods seem ready to give the hypocrite a show 
 whenever he displays any natural cleverness. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 "THE TKAVELING SHOW OP HANDS." 
 
 *' There ought to be a law that'd put a stop to them cussed fools 
 going 'round to meetings." 
 
 "Who?" , , „ 
 
 "Why, them Doc. Golia' Traveling Show o Han s. 
 
 "Were they out to the Staghorn meeting last night?" 
 
 " Well, you'd a'sed so if you'd a be'n there. Of course they 
 were there. Ain't they everywhere where Smith's likely to have 
 it on a division of the house ? Why, they had the biggest load 
 last night they've had this 'lection. Twenty-two of 'em came 
 tramping in just when our speaker was gittin' in his best p ints, 
 an' they broke him all up with their racket, dragging their heels 
 an' stumblin' over people. I'd haul 'em up fur bein' a nuisance if 
 I could. But that'd only show 'em how mad I was." 
 
 " Of course it would," said the other speaker. " There is no 
 law that will reach them until they do something more than make 
 a noise at a meeting. The law considers a political meeting a 
 place especially designed for making a noise at. The best thing 
 to do would be to get the Conservative boys to organize the same 
 kind of a gang, and they would soon exterminate one another, 
 like the ' Kilkenny cats.' " , • , 
 
 " Humph ! I don't know what in thunder we d do with two 
 lots. We'd never be able to hold a meeting at ail." 
 
 The institution known as " Doctor Goliath's Traveling Show 
 of Hands," which had given rise to the foregoing conversation 
 
OUR CANDIDATE, 
 
 51 
 
 them cussed fools 
 
 cer. " There is no 
 
 between two supporters of the Conservative Candidate, was 
 pecuhar to North Flat in that it had enrolled into something like 
 a permanent organization, an element that was more or less con- 
 spicuous in every electoral district of the province. It consisted 
 of a gang of young men numbering nearly thirty, gathered from 
 the chief villages of the riding and the thickly settled country 
 near about. They had specially provided themselves with a 
 wagon that would carry the whole party, and thev were never at 
 a loss among the farmers' sons for two pair of horses to draw the 
 conveyance. At the slightest intimation to the appointed leader 
 a few hours were sufficient to carry the news to every member of 
 the gang, and early dusk would see them on the road to a meet- 
 ing at any given point in the riding. There were only three or 
 four of the whole number who had votes, but these were sufficient 
 on which to base their right to a voice in political gatherings. 
 And a very loud voice it was. There is a period between the 
 ages of sixteen and twenty-two when boys are especially gifted 
 with a desire to exercise the /latural functions of limbs and lungs, 
 to the utter disregard of their brains. A wagon load of healthy 
 boys of about this age can crack the plaster on a country school- 
 house wall with their demoniacal noises, made in the name of 
 applause. 
 
 The knowledge that men in the mass have more anxiety to be 
 on the winning side than on the right side, is probably what led 
 to the practice at political meetings of calling for a division of the 
 house or a show of hands " by the side that knows itself to be in 
 the ascendant. It is a very successful device for influencing some 
 wavering or non-committal voter, who is waiting to trim with the 
 victorious side. In an average country school-house meeting of 
 one hundred people, a wagon load of twenty easily made the 
 1 ai"\rence between victory and defeat on a " show of hands " 
 J 1 his organized troupe of young North Flatters, though spoken 
 jOf by those It was organized to torment, as "Doc. Goliath's Trav- 
 e''."g ^how of Hands," was really under the immediate general- 
 ship of Tommy 1 utilige. Tommy was the editor, publisher and 
 proprietor of the North Flat Foghorn, though it was whispered 
 about that the old-fashioned hand-press and meagre supply of 
 battered type which constituted his outfit had been provided by 
 Doctor Gohath and that the Doctor also wrote such editorials as 
 were not revised from the great party organ in the metropolis. 
 L ^o the same extent that the Doctor owned and edited the 
 jrugnorn ne seemed to own and run Tommy and the Traveling 
 bhow of Hands The Doctor was the Local Member before re- 
 ferred to, who in turn, and for his own convenience, was just now 
 
 m 
 «! 
 
 i 
 
 i. 
 
62 
 
 OUK CANDIUATE. 
 
 allowing himself to be run by Our Candidate, with the firmest 
 faith in his own ability to run the whole riding whenever the 
 occasion demanded it. He was fairly successful in his profession, 
 and respected by his patrons, but he was above all adapted to the 
 stump and the caucus work of the politician. He was bale fel- 
 low with his friends, political or otherwise, popular as a candidate 
 for any office, and a terrestrial god in the eyes of the boys who 
 constituted the "Traveling Show of Hands." Whenever it was 
 convenient he was one of their wagon-load, drank from the same 
 bottle, furnished them lights from his cigar, and joined in the 
 songs with which they made the night hideous on their way to 
 and from a meeting. 
 
 CHAPTER ?iVII. 
 
 LOVE AND PARTY ALLEGIANCE. 
 
 "And so he would compel you to marry him by a threat to 
 disgrace your father in the eyes of all Flat County.? I see," said 
 the Colonel, and he laughed a cynical " ha ! ha ! " when the import 
 of what his daughter had been telling him of a visit from John 
 Swanson was made plain to him. 
 
 " Yes, father; he knows that I had some knowledge of the 
 debt you paid him out of the hard earned money of the farm, 
 because I kept the books and took his receipts, and he says it 
 would disgrace you forever if it were known what that money 
 was borrowed for." 
 
 The Colonel was silent for a time, but his face twitched with 
 nervous agitation, and his hands, which were in the habit of 
 opening and closing in rapid convulsive movements when any- 
 thing disturbed him mentally, seemed now as if they longed to 
 fasten upon somethingout of reach. Nora waited some moments 
 for him to speak. When he did, it was as if unconscious of her 
 presence, for he spoke rather in soliloquy than as addressing any- 
 one. 
 
 "And this is the bond of political friendship.? I ought to 
 have known it. I have seen something of it before, but not 
 coming home to me as this does. loughtto have known it would 
 come when 1 decided to support Guilford this term. This, then, 
 is the reward of years of allegiance to party; whenever a man 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 63 
 
 Cff ? T' '^'^^"dependence they will destroy his in- 
 fluence if they have to destroy the dearest associations of h s life 
 along with It There is nothing sacred in political v;a fare " 
 the^TJc^edTng ot.^°'°"^' "^^^^^ ^rewin Cynical bitterness over 
 
 " This," he went on, " is the kindly recognition of party friends 
 who told me I had saved xNorth Flat fronT the seditions of radi 
 call m forty years ago; this is the consolation of adherence to 
 political pnnc.pes at the expense of moral ones ; thi7"s- " 
 but here the Colonel stopped short, as if siiddenlv' comii. to 
 '''w?^'u"u'V'^''''^'°" ^f tl^^ P'-esence of Nora ^ "^ 
 
 What he had said was the revelation of a mind "that had bp^n 
 for some days gradually awakening to a new v ew of his rel.Hnh 
 to the little world around him-the world as represen ed in he 
 political, religious and social horoscope of Flat Countv Ho^ 
 small a matter will sometimes turn the whole tide of a m^n^ 
 
 S"^f'hts';1rut^'^-''' 'r''' ''''\ touches 'some%rng 
 cnora ot nis nature he strongest element in Col Toll's 
 
 character was devotr .: .is friends. His strongest friendsh d 
 
 it's "affinSs'" He had' "'" ^'^ '^"" °^ '"^ political anStl!^! 
 lous amiiations He had never questioned whether those friend 
 
 ships were founded on these affiliations or were simX strength 
 
 ened by tnem. He only knew that while his geneZ naSfd 
 
 not confine its friendships to the narrow lines of his poHtcs and 
 
 religion It was there that he bestowed most of his devotion and 
 
 so heartily had it been rendered that he had never sCD;d to 
 
 question the sincerity of professed appreciation. llwas °hSefo e 
 
 a keen blow to him when he learned from his defearfn he con! 
 
 test for the wardenship that a political party has no siul tha? h 
 
 has no mterests but those of selfishness. It warthe L con 
 
 i aTo^'S cVh-^ T'' ?'" ^"^^^'"S ^'^«' that had led tim ?o 
 favor Our Candidate, and ever since he had taken the first sten 
 m that direction he had been made to feel the truth more keei Iv 
 The breaking away had been mentally painful to him S 
 this added poignancy to and magnified evervthJigthaSemed 
 to bear upon the insincerity of partyism. He now saw it .s n 
 mere "machine;- which a feV men manipulate for theiiTesonat 
 advancement and profit, while party principles, though much taUced 
 about, are in truth only i pleasing distraction to keepX eyes of 
 the people off the tyrannous invention. The generally sincere hn 
 
 m 
 m 
 
 I 
 
i 
 
 64 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 i n 
 
 While the Colonel was speaking his daughter had drawn nearer 
 to him, ^d as her presence interrupted his bitter reverie she 
 placed a« arm across his shoulders, while her eyes, on the verge 
 of tears, looked sorrowfully into his. 
 
 "Well, well," he said more indifferently, trying to shake off the 
 abstraction, " let him go on. If the honorable party to which he 
 belongs has no interests to serve that will hold his tongue, let him 
 go on," 
 
 "But, father, what is the awful thing with which he threatens 
 us? How can he disgrace you ? How can he injure your good 
 name ? Tell me the secret of that borrowed money, and let me 
 know what evil it is possible for me to avert by receiving John 
 Swanson's attentions. You know my love for you would 
 make many things endurable that I shrink from when there is 
 nothing but my own inclination to guide me. Tell me the story 
 of that indebtedness to John Swanson, and I will pay it over 
 again with the sacrifice of my life's happiness, if that will pre- 
 serve your good name." 
 
 " No, Nora. There is no necessity that you should know it, 
 and none that you should surrender your happiness to preserve 
 mine. My years are too few now, and yours too many, I hope,, 
 to make such a sacrifice just." 
 
 " Besides," he added, lapsing half into reverie again, " a misdeed 
 covered is not a misdeed remedied ; it is only when we have 
 exhausted its punishment that we are out of bondage to crime. 
 I have not exhausted the punishment of my error, and I am 
 ready, if need be, to bear the rest. Go, drive away, your care 
 about John Swanson, Nora," he said, addressing his daughter, 
 " to make room for better company. And I," he added, " will do 
 the same with John Swanson himself when next he seeks to 
 enter my house." 
 
 " But, father — " 
 
 He turned toward Nora, and raised his hand deprecatingly. 
 
 " — you are not so indifferent to this man's threat as you 
 would make yourself and me believe. Will you not — " 
 
 "My daughter!" and the Colonel paused to give emphasis to 
 the kind but firm enunciation of that sweet word, daughter. " I 
 have said enough to assure you that there are no two courses in 
 my mind about this matter. Do not require me to be harsh with 
 you. I assure you that there is no great evil hanging over us." 
 
 As a child Nora had early learned when her pleading reached 
 the limit it v/ould either prev.'',il with her father or begin to pro- 
 voke him, and she always stopped there. As a woman she knew 
 still better the firmness of his character ; so placing her arm again 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 B» 
 
 t°:'from r r;,™' """=" ' «== "P- Ms forehead and with. 
 
 ingis not yet complete. Well, I will bear it ThetSsaetdn; 
 short with me anyway, and it is wnrf h cr.r„lfi,- . getting 
 
 mdepe„dence/o/,he'^.,l^^^L^ha^ eSt'1 L'S'like^o 
 , miration ; why should I be disturbed about d her? Is for tht" 
 
 [lidve aesertea It. It may do so for its own." 
 
 lnof.°/^^/"K^' ?°^°"^^ '^°" *°°^ °"t i"k and paoer and penned a 
 
 ["ad thuif " '"'"^°"- '^ "^^ "^"^^ - *he Colonel's tem'p'eTand 
 
 [John Swanson. Wellington Gate. Sept. 3, 18-. 
 
 In JP~^^ daughter has informed me of ^our reoAnf v,-«,> or,^ fu 
 lardiy procedure of it Onna\Ao.r. fK;„ „ "VL". ^®*'®'i'' ^isit and the cow- 
 
 lof myVuse As to" your threat nronTi??*^^^ ^/ the hospitalities 
 bourself and the politicaTnartv fn^wht^ *° ^l^'i"*® ** '^ ^o" tl^i^k 
 Tthan I shall by the disclosure ^ ^°" ''^^''p^ ^"^ ^'^ff^'' 1«8S 
 
 ' * -KicHARD Toll. 
 
 «j 
 
 THE 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 'FREE AND INTELLIGENT. 
 
 kai?a°lean'7anrtfr.?f T" "'''"*'' '•""■"^"' ^°^ P^^-le-ment .> " 
 
 ITIJ^T^ l,'"^' '. °°J-"^-"?'" -''^'^'^ °" ^ '^^ f^"^e that 
 Unir^ ■ anciv^nt aim duapiaated farm-house in a soarselv 
 
 If 
 
■'li 
 
 50 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 slowly that they broke in two at the syllables. He seemed in 
 want of somebody to articulate both his speech and 'his bones. 
 
 " Yes, and I would like you to give me your vote if you can do 
 so consistently," said Our Candidate. 
 
 "Wal, I doan-no 'bout con sist-tent-ly," said this specimen of 
 the " free and intelligent " of North Flat, pausing to squirt a 
 mouthful of tobacco spittle at the eye of an indolent looking 
 dog that lay at his feet blinking at us as if wondering whether we 
 would carry off his master and so compel him to leave the com- 
 fortable shadow of the fence. " I doan-no 'bout con-sist-tent-ly ; 
 but I knaw I can't afford to vote for nob-dy for naw-think." ^^ 
 
 "Have you decided how much you want for your vote.? 
 asked Our Candidate, running his eye from the voter to the 
 assistant missionary and the junior counsel to see if they were 
 enjoying the cool commercial character of the transaction. 
 
 "Naw. But I knaw I doan get naw-think but what I pay for 
 an' the man what gets my vote hes to pay for jt," and the lean, 
 lank, shackle-jointed man knocked the ashes out of his cob pipe 
 and slid carefully off the fence with a peculiar hitch of his body 
 that seemed necessary to get all the bones of his relaxed frame 
 ready to drop into place when he str.ick tne ground. 
 •' Have you had any offers yet ? " asked our i missionary. 
 "Naw-think sure; but a man what called yisterday tola the 
 Miss-US that if I voted for Smith it 'd be all-rate." 
 
 " Do you know who it was ? " • > u 
 
 " Naw. Miss-us said he wouldn't leave his name, but it d be 
 all-rate, he said." 
 
 " Well, if vou let me know what he gives you I can probably 
 do something' better for you," said Our Candidate, and climbing 
 into our carriage we left the free and untrammeled elector busy 
 with his thoughts ; the only thing he was ever busy with, judging 
 from his surroundings. ,, . , 
 
 " I don't expect there's much use calling nere, said the assis- 
 tant missionary as we drew up at the gateway of a more thrifty 
 looking homestead, the house itself standing more conspicuous 
 than many in North Flat on a piece of rising ground some 
 distance from the road. "But it will show our good will toward 
 them to do so, so let's go in." 
 
 A chumpish farmer boy sat on the woodpile near the side door 
 whittling what was probably intended for an ax-handle when 
 finished. An able-bodied girl of the household, attractive chiefly 
 in the freshness of yoiitli nnd rooust health, was ar.awing a 
 bucket of water from an old-fashioned well with the primitive 
 windlass attachment. It came up from the depths dripping and 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 57 
 
 1 name, but it 'd be 
 
 th, was drawing a 
 
 
 splattering its cool, crystal contents about the well curb Jn . ,. 
 to arouse the sensation of thJrc*^ ,•„ ^ . ^^" '" ^ ^^y 
 
 request for a drink ha° ^ot been LSh""' °^ "!; "'" '' ">« 
 whatever In a political way might l^Sbf "' " S""" "P^'-gfor 
 
 In another moment she had flhteH int^r^! t ''■?^ °' f"=- 
 
 something on her mind ^°'"'' '"d^'ly with 
 
 foZed b;aro"„fsh'Lokta^''o^""^"=^ *e girl came out again 
 must have 'drawTfrom °ote"*ch "n^res^'lhe^hiwTll^™ 
 
 wom.;^^-ffcd-^rm1„-^^^ 
 
 conservative minds. " Reformers rrehPk''K T'^^ °^ 
 
 te t' She^r ^-iri •£-» t/nTw'oS 
 
 ^^Soi-^rr„t€S5 ir "t - -- 
 
 ebellyun,' a? so there «s An' ifw^' \*""' 8°'" '! "= ^ 
 ■t/„rmm " " " "^'' ^" "" account o' them 
 
 a^', "b;fti;'.tidTot;a^ -rr ^--^-'-^ "^ -^ °f-p'- 
 
 h-S'"./:,?."" ^'.f^li"'. '" 'he papers the other dav. WilWum- 
 
 ■hrh^d'S;;;!;^ .t;rS*r;t"'^''f"""8!?"''|>^boy 
 
 he other dav in Vt» lu T°°^P"«- ^ Willyum was readin' only 
 oiner day in the Mail where that man Mowit was agoin' to 
 
 « 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 raise a harmy an' take possesshun o' the country up north. Yes, 
 Reformers is rebels," reiterated the old woman, and shakmg her 
 lone bony finger at her son-in-law who had just come up.she added : 
 " If I'd a thought about it afore you was married, Willyum, y 
 sh ildn't a hed my darter till y' promised not to vote fur Reform- 
 
 n 
 
 crs 
 
 The introductions that followed compelled f.ie old '"oman to 
 pause for a moment, but she was only catching her breath for a 
 new onslaught and it was evident that nothing in the way of mis- 
 sionary work could be accomplished in her presence, so. on pre- 
 tense of looking at some of her son-in-law s stock we strolled off 
 to the stables, too far away for the old woman to follow. 
 
 
 I i 
 
 i . 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 POLITICAL BPI8TLBS. 
 
 "If I am to be able to talk at al to-night," said Our Candidate, 
 " I must have a little rest. Open the remainder of that batch of 
 letters and tell me what they say," and he threw himself down 
 upon the bed to rest his limbs while his brain went on devising 
 iudicious answers to a long list of dreary epistles from the easily 
 disheartened adherents of our cause in the back townships, the 
 general tenor of which was that he must come in person and ! 
 hold meetings among them if be hoped to keep their favor. Now '• 
 and then there was one in a more cheerful vein such as this : 
 
 Tho8. GuiLFOUD, Esq., Catchemtown. , » , , e n ^^• 
 
 My Dear BoY-Aml so you arc still urging the forlorn liope of Gritism. 
 I thought that with years would came better sense. Why don t you 
 stand in with the party that is in power once m a while? I cotddnt en- 
 dure the cold sh des of opposition year alter year as you do What the 
 devil do you want to be always reforming some' nng for ? it's an endless | 
 iob and n fees in it. Just about the time you fellows get the country 
 worked u lo the wisdom of a measure the conservatives step in and em- 
 body the same idea in a bill, and our side gets the glory of enacting it. 
 Weil 1 \^ ish you luck, and shall not come down to vote against you. 
 " ' •' Yours as ever, 
 
 Jeremiah Solemn. 
 
 Dear Mb. GuiLFORD-Satanville is getting very impatient for a littlej 
 Dublic speaking. They say vou are giving the east side of the Riding all of I 
 P.,."^!,'i:^„p.?l,onaua« the farmprs are better off over there. We have| 
 amnged'ame'eting for Friday night and you must be there. Notify thei 
 Traveliiig Show ol Hands. ^The "Macs" are at it shovel and tongs, and 
 tiie family quarrel will spoil our usual majority here. Six of the Mc-» 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 69 
 
 Dougalls hare declared they will vote Smith h,Jq Hr.,« „« i .u 
 8ur« to call for a division of tlirhnnTpn/.l^^!"''*^?.''*''^^^ 
 " Show of Hands." * "'^ Yours tJulT^^^" '^ °° ^''^ 
 
 L. A. M. B. 
 "How becoming those initials are to Burt eh ? Thp i.«,k ^ 
 
 alone for working a baS ^eie of th.s ooHtir^'l ''• ^T"" ^"" 
 him I'll be there for FridrnLht and ?hlM k ^'"^^^^d. Write 
 Shucks to lead the singing -^ ^ '''"' ^ ^^"^ '^"^^g^d Prof. 
 
 so?rr^t"s!^Th?s7^^e%lnrc^..?J^^^ 
 
 season is past. How about he tariff on woc^'Pr'L*!'."!: ^'''\'' ''" "^« 
 long-wool sheep out here to stock a ranrh .?. k i,"^^* ,^°'^fi'" en«ugb 
 ~a long while after. The or ce of r«t« t "" delivered after the 17th 
 another hundred ddivered aTCe same Jlarp^^'^f "'^ TV «"r8*^» ^^ ^^^^e 
 chance tlie other day an 1 had a r^nvo I^nff.J 'I'T C?''"''" Innocent by 
 foundly indifferent. 'l ho^ie'^Lty^^rl^tSinrfi isSiab^e^ ^"^ P- 
 
 Yours, Chobe. 
 
 Local'^rjm^sS'rp^lftS^'S^^^^^ soon there is a vHcancy in the 
 help me John Roger i^f I don't Stito Hfn pIh-""! .T-'^ ^ «"are: and so 
 the whole thing up. If there is a^nihoHv 1 ^^^' -^^ '^l^ t*"" ^''^ throw 
 represent Wesf London bet er .hSf I can hc°l' Hl^^'' »"""^^ '^^ "^^^ 
 election. As to the votes you wrote about VL i^""^.?^. '*', ^''^ '* "«* 
 
 , north ward, strange to say- Washino-^nn pL.f P"?'."' ^^^^ * live in the 
 he goes, and I'll hfve to'^e S again and oerZl' h- ' '""^'T' P^'^ i' 
 notion. Dennis McGuigan wUl lo for 1 S. ^"^ **"' "^ ^hat silly 
 pleasure of ''votln' agin the ™?miS''ri?ll?H"?'1?'''*"''" «°d the 
 
 I Sand polling day. wishing y^u great success. ^^ '^'^ "''" ^°'^ «° 
 
 Believe me, yours truly, 
 
 they 
 Thos. Hobson. 
 
 "Hobson's choice, eh?" continued Our Candidate "A ni,.. • 
 
 [the cabinet or no run next time WpII hl^ ?u ' , ^^^^^ ^" 
 
 party can elect from his R^dinl and he'd t^ '^' -"^^^ '""^ ^'' 
 
 Minister of Agricultur:, fdf ?n'stance I'H beVhT'&T'- 
 
 Ittt^^t o'nf ."'^^^^ ^^ P^-^^^ - harvestei'in' tL^kt,"" Vt?! 
 
 ^^^:{Z^Z^ ^eply to your 
 
 jferen'^e int tot!^^'""'^' ^"^ ^^"'^'^^^^ -'^ ^^-ted indif- 
 
 I My Dbar Brother— T wjai. tro.i oii ",,««o-= -• - . 
 
 for of two evils I think we' ougbrto choose thXT ^'"''^ '° """"^^ *'^«^ 
 
 " Hard on the Liberals, isn't it. eh ?" interrupted Our Candidate. 
 
 « 
 « 
 
/'.r 
 
 60 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 »i 
 
 but I would much rather see you amongst the elect of the Lord than elec- 
 ted to Parliament. Consider the words of the Master: What shall it 
 nroflt a man if ho cain (he whole world and lose hm awn tfoul! 
 P ** Yours in the Lord, SiiAniiAci: Quakehson. 
 
 "We'll let that lay on the table till the campaign V over," said 
 Our Candidate. " Let's see what the next is about." 
 
 Deak Mr Guilford— Our Bible Christian friends hold tieir annual 
 missionary meeting next Monday nii^'ht in the Martyrvillc church and they 
 " ould like to have you act as c l.airman. They have asked me as 
 President of the township llefoim Association, to extend you the invi- 
 tation. If you can arrange it so as to be present it will do us more good 
 thaS a political meeting!' You will be ahle to get m a word tha w 
 please the church members and it may bring some of the siived » out 
 Dolline day. I know several of them who are aching to vote if they 
 thought the good Lord would approve of it. Come down now if you can 
 and eive the cause of the heathen a lift. m ^ 
 
 " * Yours in a good cause, Tribulation Tucker. 
 
 " Here's one from your friend Deacon Holdup, down in Africa :" 
 
 Dear Mister GiLFURD-Things don't look no way smilin' down here 
 in Afric' Township— 
 
 "Come in!" shouted Our Candidate in answer to a knock at 
 
 the door. . , , , , 11 
 
 The grating old knob turned harshly, the door swung slowly 
 on its creaking hinges and two rather gaudily dressed girls pre- 
 sented themselves to Our Candidate. They were taking up sub- 
 scriptions for Grace Church Bazar and of course the candidate 
 would give them something. , , r. 
 
 *' Has the other candidate given you anything ? asked Our 
 
 Candidate. . . , r^ u- " 
 
 "Oh we don't know. Two Conservative girls are after him. 
 
 " I see. You are running it on a political basis ? You are two j 
 Reform girls, are you?" 
 
 " Yes," simpered th.- girls simultaneously. ,. , , 1 
 
 " Well, don't you know that it is against the law for a candidate 
 tomakegifts to anybody?" j „r ♦!,. 
 
 "Oh, that's nuthin'," said the younger and more forward of the 
 two, "you can give us somethin' just as well as not. We expected 
 to get a good subscription out of you to start our list." 
 
 "No I can't do it. It would be contrary to law. But you] 
 might get five dollars out of that young man," said Our Can- 
 didate, looking suggestively towards the J= C. , . . , ^., 
 
 The J. C. took the hint and the two forward girls took thej 
 money. 
 
 !|3 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 61 
 
 Enoch Holdcp. 
 
 T c' fou\rha^%h^/?^^J'''"- " ''''^'" ^'"^ *^^^" deciphered the 
 Lt had eone into rh'^f'^ ""/^l-T ^"^ P°'"''^'''' h°"°^« *» North 
 
 lULATioN Tucker. 
 
 iwer to a knock at 
 
 :hing?" asked Our 
 
 law for a candidate j 
 
 ward girls took the! 
 
 CHAPT/SR XX. 
 
 A MENTAL STRUGGLE. 
 
 The days that followed Nora'"* visi«- frr>«r, t^u c 
 
 po7idc°v'^^V""^^^'"T ''^ -' tormJ "of 7ricr[: 
 
 politics to realize any of the concern her father suffered over the 
 car.ll";rJ ^"'"'^'y '''' '^'' ^'^' breaking awav from old polti! 
 
 I ust now fh.MwVi The country was so much absorbed in politics 
 I just now that lit le in the nature of rural social gatherings could 
 , command attention, and Nora in nowise regarded herself as es 
 TarcoLStha^.^ P?'^'^-^^ commotion fn North I^i:'.^ "s"e" 
 I Stes was "he tb eA T''''''''' '^°^" ^'' ^^ ^"^ ^^ 'he can- 
 aid sorll rplJ-^ ^l- "^^'"""^ ^°'''P' '" ^hich religion, politics 
 bevonTl littli r'^''^' ""^"" '"discriminately mixed up. but 
 I subdue thi iL T'^"^^ ''""!'>' '^^' ^he could not altogether 
 her interest in Onr r^ 77''^''.' '" ^'' ^^^'^'^^^ real exfent of 
 regarded iala ?rnf ^^f'^^'' '^'^^ denied to her own heart and 
 San rardv adr^ t?h T'' ''''''' everybody else. A womanly 
 rrTciprocatd ^^ ^°"' '"'" '° ^^'"^^•^ ""'•' «he knows it 
 
 rJ;'t^J^?u"^u*''^'■''e°°d "^"le seemed to be at stake Nora 
 roS '"^' K-' !,^"' """"'• Come of a respectable an'es^ry^he 
 
 £ t^e p^l'ofto?a/^- ?'"'''' r *^^ "^-^ pride "blood 
 Ifor if. Hh, ;^ '^^ integrity which runs not back to Adam 
 
 |fpr Its illustrious connections. She felf k.^pi" ^J^" fo-l Af° s 
 
 ft"S;to?"'But"h''H '^'^^ I"' «he knew Viiat her father fell 
 
 \istory of the borroin '^ "°' ^''!1 ^'^^^ *^° ^'•^^^' f^""" him the 
 isiory ot the borrowed money, and m proportion as it was a 
 
 m 
 
 4 
 
62 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 k"*?::: 
 
 1 
 
 
 y ;;■ ■■•■ 
 
 t: 
 
 ji 
 
 secret it must be awful in a woman's mind. She watched hei 
 father's melancholy mood and thought, fretted and -feared herself 
 into an illness that I er step-mother could not understand and her 
 father could not dissipate. She dare not broach the subject 
 again to her father. He had said it and there was no demur; 
 she knew he would g( to the gallows to preserve her happiness, 
 or to keep to his purpose, and she knew not how much this 
 dreadful threat of Swanson's involved. What if the threatened 
 exposure should come just when Mr. Guilford's interest in her 
 was aroused and when the name of her father was in so many 
 mouths in North Flat because of his course in the election ? Were 
 not the ungenerous suspicions and the false reports now cur- 
 rent about him enough without this dreadful disgrace.'' It must 
 be true, too, for her father did not deny it; he 1 d only deter- 
 mined to brave it. How could it be averted? She sat in her 
 chamber hour after hour thinking it over. But no solution of it 
 rame. There is only one true solution to a problem in mathe- 
 matics and there is only one way of righting a moral wrong, and 
 the Colonel had hit it when he said he must exhaust the punish- 
 ment the wrong had incurred. It is a mistake to teach that even 
 the forgiveness of a God satisfies justice. In her misery Nora 
 had only the old temporary resort of disguising what she could 
 not disprove, and to that she turned. After hours of delibera- 
 tion she sat down and wrote the following note : 
 
 "Wellington Gate," Tuesday Afternoon, 
 
 Mr. John SwAasoN -. ^ . . « 
 
 8iB— I have reconsidered the answer I gave you on the occasion or your 
 recent visit and am willing to accept your proposal in order to save nay 
 father's reputation. I liope I have not been too long considering the 
 sacrifice. IIonora Toll. 
 
 She folded and sealed the brief epistle and addressing it to " Mr. 
 John Swanson, Mugginsville P. O.." she laid it on the corner of 
 her dressing table and then lapsed into the contemplation of what 
 she had done. It was not a missive she cared to put into any 
 neighborly hand to be carried to the "Corners" postoffice, for the 
 penmanship was her own, not her father's, and though they could 
 never have guessed the contents neighbors will talk. She might 
 have gone herself; it was only a short canter Oii horseback, thatj 
 she was in the frequent habit of taking. Yet, pressing as the 
 errand seemed, Nora delayed. Whether the letter went or 
 stayed it only boded her misery ; and there are moments when i 
 we would as aooii be the creatures of circumstance as assert ouij 
 own will. So Nora sat and waited, she knew not just what for, 
 till the attenuated shadows had dissolved themselves in dusk. 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 68 
 
 i'uesday Afternoon. 
 
 Then she felt impelled to get the letter off, and it being too late 
 to go herself she hastened down to the back door and calling the 
 Colonel s man-of-all-work, instructed him to take the letter to the 
 office for her I hen she slipped away to her room a^ain. But 
 her errand down stairs had not escaped Mrs. Toll's keen 
 vision. Indeed, there was little about the place that did 
 escape her vigilant eye, and Nora's recent indisposition she 
 -nL'n?" w-lu'"''''^ to be more a matter of mental fhan physical 
 ailment. With a remarkable control of those womanly attributes 
 sentiment and curiosity such as would have done her credit could 
 she have taken the hand m North FIrr p,>., jrs that she mildly 
 suggested at the dinner table a desire or. .he .as much of a dZ 
 mestic diplomat. She had learned th it 'n all n, tters of mystery 
 there was great virtue in waiting, and h. nwer precipitated her 
 
 cZ.a""' ^^ '''\"^ '°°.'°°"- 2"^ ^ '^' ^'" ^'' '""er when she 
 came downstairs betrayed her perturbe mind, and the special 
 stress laid on the maihng of a letter at night at a farm house, 
 where correspondence is rarely urgent, were conditions to which 
 Mrs Toll could not be altogether indifferent. She followed John 
 the farm hand, and asked for the letter. She read the address and ii 
 did not surprise her. She had been prepared to keen her coun- 
 tenance unchanged if the letter read " Thomas Guilford "or any 
 address that was unfamiliar to her. But "John Swanson,"an inno- 
 
 Ihh hL'l^l^ / "^ • ^^^ ^or^'"^^'' '^ofhered Nora somewhat 
 with his awkward offic.ousness, but nothing more ; what could be 
 the occasion of a hurried communication with "John Swanson >" 
 thin r -n/", '^ ^° •" °^ ^^^ necessity for a hasty decision rather 
 than a w. Iful intention to do wrong. Mrs. Toll withheld the letter 
 and told John to go on and bring back the mail 
 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THR MEETING IN " SATANVir I.E." 
 
 tinl^'nf" ''l^^°'■''•n°'^.'^^' ''^^ '^"'^'^^ ^^^ opprobrious dcsigna- 
 ^ Jh ^^"^^"^'"C ''^' the shame and scandal of the more 
 staid and respectable portions of Flat County. It had dS 
 gu.shed Itself for general wickedness and for family feudst at" 
 would have done no discredit to the clans Campbell and McDon- 
 
 :Io "I'4 'i^-^:".if "^'^ ","^."7 ''^' --^ -ry discreditable to the 
 -o.. ..„n^^ iiv^iiiesanu jealousies of the Nineteenth rhpr*» 
 
 t"o'[Lr f'" ^''' «^^"«' ^'°ters in the whole seulement.- and left 
 to themselves the majority for one candidate or the olher"vould 
 
 
fi 
 
 64 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 have been determined by the temporary strength of the animosity 
 existing between the family heads of the McDougalls and the 
 McGregors, who whenever they differed in family affairs carried 
 their difference into politics. Ultra opponents of everything 
 ritualistic in religion they were bitterly opposed as a whole to 
 everything that bore the name or semblance of Toryism in poli- 
 tics, hence there was no revenge for a family slight or offense so 
 sweet as casting a vote for the Tory candidate. To tranquilize 
 their hate and have them vote according to their non-conformist 
 tendencies was the object of our party, and hence Our Candidate 
 had excused and delayed bringing them together in a public 
 meeting, until at last they had become sensitive as to his neglect 
 and would be put off no longer. 
 
 The meetinEC night had arrived, and so had Our Candidate. It 
 was hoped that the introduction of singing into the programme 
 of the " Satanville " meeting would have a soothing influence, 
 hence the engagement of Prof. Shucks, with the " Traveling Show 
 of Hands " as a chorus. 
 
 The meeting was held in the Good Templars' Hall, the walls 
 of which shed a moral radiance from tinsel paper banners in- 
 scribed '• Faith " " Hope " " Charity," etc. The Professor of song 
 opened proceedingr with a well executed solo to the. tune of 
 " Rob Roy McGregor, O ! " which was highly gratifying to the 
 half-dozen disaffected voters of the clan McGregor. 
 
 The Government candidate was represented on this occasion 
 by the eminently respectable Major Foundling, referred to in a 
 preceding chapter. It was agreed between the Major and Our 
 Candidate that the latter, whose meeting it was, should occupy 
 the first forty-five minutes ; that the Major should then speak 
 forty-five minutes, and Our Candidate should then have thirty 
 minutes in which to sum up. There was little to inspire either of 
 the speakers in such a gathering. The feeling was rather one of 
 contempt for the intelligence that had called them to that neigh- 
 borhood chiefiy because other points had been favored with 
 meetings and partially because it was customary for an applicant 
 for their suffrages to exhibit iiimself to the crude criticisms of their 
 dull understandings. To avoid even the slightest ground of 
 offense, Our Candidate h d before setting out for the meeting laid 
 aside his high silk hat and donned one of cheapest straw. 
 
 Now for three-quarters of an hour he exerted himself to inter- 
 est his immobile company of listeners, who saw little in his care- 
 fully chosen words and finished sentences to applaud or condemn. 
 He had dwelt with considerable vehemence on the monstrous 
 iniquity of subdividing the country according to its political 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 65 
 
 complexion ; had condemned the refusal to execute the papers 
 which would put their Province in undisputed possession of a 
 large piece of additional territory ; had touched in a ginge ly 
 fashion the complicated question of the tariff on imports a^d had 
 wandered off into some vague generalities intended more to 
 occupy the time than to edify his hearers 
 
 The Major rose to reply. " It was hardlv necessary." he said 
 " to inform the people of "— ' ^=»'^'y> "e saia, 
 
 Here the Major paused to recall the proper name of the terri- 
 tory in which he stood ^ broad grin overspread the features f 
 his audience who though they would have resented the use of the 
 common appellation under such circumstances, were nevertheless 
 amused^at the Major's hesitation in getting hold of the autho- 
 
 .nH n'^^-^'^P^^ Of North Flat," said the Major commencing -^.ain 
 and paying a neat compliment to the people before him by pkc- 
 mg them on a common level with all parts of the constituency 
 are again in the order of public affairs under a representa"we 
 form of government, called upon to exercise the grand and gTori! 
 i wh!.S:''T''n ^^f^^^"^^" ; the privilege of sayin^g by their vote 
 whether the Government which formulated and enacted a e^Iat 
 measure which brought prosperity to the land should be sustained 
 
 L^hT; ?' "'^^'t' V^^y '^'^^ g'^^ ^^y '« the incapable menTnd 
 the hard times which prevailed a few years ago." (Applause ) 
 
 The form in which the Major had expressed himself mght 
 
 eem to lea, e the intent of this applause in doubt "but it Tame 
 
 from the Major's friends and was intended to accord with his 
 
 S%nT'''' indefinitely expressed. He had paused to receive 
 
 Ithcir endorsement and was about to launch into more soec fie 
 
 iCh ""^i"' ^"'"l'' °'" denunciation of his opponents, when a 
 
 llow-browed, uncouth-looking fellow rose up in the midd e of the 
 
 Cih^rHl''^""^ something aloft began to make a speech He 
 
 Tnd fh. h^ ^'"'l! '""" '2 ""^'" ^"'•^ than a sentence before he 
 
 fe fdlowrr; n" ""'V^ ^^^^ P^^"^^'^ "P"" ^y half-a-dozen of 
 ^is fellows and he and it prostrated in the dust of the hall floor 
 in a rough skirmish that ensued. In .ain for a time the cS 
 
 lan ca led for order, while Major Foundling stood amazed aUhe 
 linseemly proceeding The flag that had been rabed was he 
 C ^""a^ bright-buttoned night-shirt belonging to Our Candi- 
 Bate, and the tenor of the would-be orator's remarks was ?hat 
 I they didn't want no fellow what wore them fancy fandangoes to 
 I f^ - .-.J..,,,, ,,i„, r-iuitii x'iac in rarhnieut. 
 
 vhether to hf '" ^^^/taggered, and for the time did not know 
 
 vhether to be amused or irritated. He had doffed his silk bat 
 
 
 •(.'f 
 
66 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 i' 
 
 ,.*Hlll«it 
 
 
 
 i'*?!-' 
 
 Il 
 
 in deference to the Satanvillians because it had given offense at 
 the Mugginsville meeting, and now, while he had been speaking 
 a political enemy had rifled his satchel in the hotel and brought 
 forth his night-robe into the meeting ; a pair of sticks had been 
 crossed and the extended arms put through the sleeves of the 
 garment, and there it hung for that brief moment in all the gor- 
 geousness of the fashionable rode de nuit. 
 
 But our supporters had f ome to the rescue promptly and the 
 man and his banner had quickly gone down in inglorious action, 
 so the night-shirt-episode did not promise to have a very import- 
 ant bearing on the North Flat vote. Order was restored after a 
 time and Major Foundling took the floor again. He referred in 
 disparaging terms to some of the methods adopted to arouse an- 
 tagonism to political opponents, and then following the remarks 
 of Our Candidate he proceeded to a laudatory discussion of the 
 leading men and measures that had graced the administrations of 
 his political friends. He had barely had time to get back to the 
 thread of his discourse and the equilibrium of his nerves when 
 some twenty or more young men came trooping into the meet- 
 ing, making as much confusion as it was possible to do. 
 
 It was evident ihat the " Traveling Show of Hands " had arrived. 
 If there had been any doubt about it the simultaneous arrival of 
 Dr. Goliath, who was immediately invited to a place on the plat- 
 form by our chairman, would have dispelled it The truth 
 was, the " Show of Hands " had arrived some little time be- 
 fore, but, as was their custom, had waited for an opportune 
 moment to make their entry effective. Now on the first symptom 
 of approval given to the Major's remarks they were ready to 
 march in with such clamor as would disconcert the speaker and 
 send the first ripple of restlessness over the audience. The 
 presence of the Doctor too, with his more forcible than elegant 
 style of oratory, when the* Major had just been felicitating him- 
 self on a quiet time with the milder-mannered Candidate hi elf, 
 was a surprise to him, and he was hardly responsible tor the 
 unhappy allusion he was irritated into making. 
 
 " It was very evident, to everybody present,'* the Major said, 
 " that Dr. Go' th's perambulating load of rowdies had arrived." 
 
 Of course this brought the Local Member to his feet with a 
 protest. He did not think Major Foundling, who claimed to be 
 a gentleman, was warranted in designating the gentlemen who 
 had just arrived "a load of rowdies." (Loud applause.) He had 
 
 L/i_^ti ijiiijaT-it Mi t.iiL; \..\_>tii paii y \j\ \\i\, ^t_ ii tnjliit- il ttiIv/ UcitJ jticrl en- 
 tered and he knew them; and in order to prove to Major Found- 
 ling that they were voters and not rowdies he would invite them 
 
 .1' 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 67 
 
 to come forward and fall into line before the platform, in order 
 that the Major and the meeting might know who they were 
 
 While the late arrivals and a few others who have been 'in the 
 meeting from the beginning and who are well known to be voters 
 are moving up to the front amid the greatest confusion, it will be 
 opportune to explain that Our Candidate had lately received a 
 letter from an extensive grower of wool in another part of the 
 Province setting forth that in late readjustments of the tariff 
 there had been manifest favor shown the manufacturer over the 
 farmer, inasmuch as the increased duty had been placed wholly 
 upon fine wools of which there were none grown in the country 
 while coarse wools, which were wholly raised and chiefly used 
 were allowed to enter duty free. This was a point that had beeii 
 entirely overlooked m the tariff debates, and when Our Candi- 
 date had his attention drawn to it he had proceeded to " rub-it- 
 in, as he termed it, on the Government speakers at every oppor- 
 tunity. He knew it was a fresh point of debate with the Major, 
 and would be sure to stagger hi'>i, and in the confusion which 
 now ensued word was sent down to the door for one of our side 
 to ask the Major, when speaking was resumed, " What about the 
 duty on wool? 
 
 "There .'"said the Local Member, waving his hand across the 
 phalanx he had drawn up directly under the Major's nose, "every 
 one but seven of these are voters ! I will leave it to the meeting 
 whether the Major should not retract the remark he has just 
 made about rowdies." 
 
 The uproar was tremendous; the Major was in a quandary; but 
 the cause demanded some sacrifice of his feelings, and with a 
 brief and vague apology (for the meeting was not so sensitive as 
 theDoctor h.d made it think it was) he was allowed to proceed. 
 
 He had scarcely uttered a sentence when somebody near the 
 I door called out, 
 
 "What about the duly on wool?" 
 
 The Major with admirable readiness responded that it was a 
 case of Great cry and little wool ;" but he would come to that 
 I later on. 
 
 As the applause this witticism of the Major's awakened was 
 subsiding, somebody in the rear called out that " He couldn't pull 
 I the wool over their eyes," which was regarded as equally good by 
 I the meeting, and it went off in another paroxysm of applause 
 I In the brief space of time that had elapsed since the " wool " 
 quest-oii was first mooted ai the door, a general debate more ab- 
 sorbing than the Major's remarks, had grown up. Jim Bigson, 
 who had walked many miles to be present at the "SatanviUe" 
 
 
^tM 
 
 
 68 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 I m 
 
 meeting, was pointing out to the editor of the Plugville Blow- Pipe 
 that the duty on fine wool did not increase the demand for coarse 
 wools as the Protectionist would claim, because there was already 
 more coarse wool grown than the home market could consume. 
 The editor of the Blow-Pipe was about to elucidate the idea that 
 a protective tariff on cloths would indirectly benefit the farmers 
 by shutting out foreign cloths and increasing the consumption 
 of home wool, when a third party suggested that the farmer would 
 be no better off, because he would have to give for the protected 
 home-made cloth whatever he had gained in the increased de- 
 mand for wool; and a fourth party had suggested that that would 
 be counteracted by the increased number of manufactories, when 
 Tommy Tutilige, of the North Flat Foghorn, pushed his way 
 through the crowd and declared that that simply meant over- 
 production, no demand for wool at all, a panic in the moi">ey 
 market and a return to hard times. The laugh that had suffused 
 the rest of the meeting by the passage between the Major and the 
 man in the rear of the meeting, the editor of the Blow-Pipe mis- 
 took for delight at his supposed discomfiture, and he invited the 
 editor :{ the Foghorn out into the road to settle it by physical 
 prowess. There was a general break for the door, more than two- 
 thirds of the audience getting up and having the Major wiping 
 his spectacles and wondering what he had done to break ap the 
 meeting. 
 
 The speakers waited on the platform some time, but the meeting 
 never reassembled. The Local Member had been deprived of 
 one of the richest opportunities of his life, and the Professor of 
 vocal gymnastics and the Traveling Show of Hands had been 
 prevented from displaying their musical abilities in meeting; so 
 loading up they drove through the settlement singing : 
 
 " Though 'twas in the dead of night, 
 That they called us to the fight, 
 We're prepared to meet the Tory tricksters soon ; 
 Even now their leaders quake 
 At the stirring name of Blake, 
 But they'll shiver at the polling coming on." 
 
 I, i 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 "the power of the press." 
 
 •' I see you are announced to be present at the Bible Christian 
 Missionary meeting to-morrow night and at Father Innocent's 
 picnic on Thursday," said Miss Toll, looking up from the paper 
 she held in her hand, to Our Candidate, who was enjoying his 
 few hours of Sunday leisure to the full as he lounged in the big 
 arm chair at the farther end of the old fashioned veranda and 
 drew large draughts of smoke from the Colonel's large and quaint 
 old meerschaum which he reserved especially for his best com- 
 pany. Nora had excused herself from taking a Sunday drive on 
 the score of illness. The truth was she did not care to be seen 
 often in Our Candidate's company since Swanson's ' imposes had 
 been revealed. 
 
 "You must find it difficult to fix your exact theological stand- 
 ing ]ust now, continued Miss Toll. 
 
 Our Candidate must have felt that he was for the moment in a 
 situation where it would not be disastrous to be candid, for he 
 paused in the work of making smoke-wreaths through which to 
 stmly Nora s pretty face and figure, and answered, " Not half so 
 difficult a task as adjusting my political views to suit a majoritv 
 of the electors of North Flat." ^ 
 
 It had become a regular thing now for Our Candidate to spend 
 bunday at the Colonel's, and it was worthy of note with what 
 punctiliousness he refrained from campaign work on the Sab- 
 bath though he made no protest against the work of his agents 
 who found that day favorable above all others for getting a word 
 with those electors who'were too busy to bother with politics on 
 
 I other days of the week. And so it came about that a glorious 
 autumn afternoon found Our Candidate in the position I have 
 described him, apparently as little interested in the election, now 
 
 I only a little more than a week off; as the least public-spirited 
 yeoman in all North Flat. He had thrown off the nervousness 
 with which he entered the campaign, as he learned more of the 
 character of the people he had to deal with, and the reiterated 
 assurance that he was going to win, made for effect from the plat- 
 lorm, had been repeated so often that he had come to a sort of 
 
 j comfortable belief in it himself. 
 
 As he sat there, did ever mild narcotic join with happier circum- 
 
 [stance to make the world delightsome? Here was money, pro- 
 
 [6DJ 
 
 ■I I 
 
**V'Mi»it 
 
 70 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 fessional success, and the respect that these ensure, all cciPbined 
 with that pacific 'nfluence that comes to physical aid iijer>tal 
 sense at the first awakenings of the senumental passJO'7, ere yet 
 that sentiment l.as had to adjust itse!f to the practical necessities 
 of married life. With Our Candidate at this nomenL '.vealth, 
 honors, love, were the entwinii^g links '■h,^\ fact and fancy welded 
 in his smoke-wreath chain of pit asinge. i ;V .tions. Love, honors, 
 wealth, made woof and warp for the intangible gossamer in which 
 he had been curtaining Nora ; and with these ihree it his com- 
 p^and he could mal<e the pattern anything hi would. Surely, 
 this was theconsumjiiation of mortal happiness. 
 
 At least, 'M it looked to the junior counsel, who loitered vpthe 
 gravel wa..> just '.hen, and plucked a flower with which to exor- 
 cise an envioi/S m' fjd. 
 
 "Yes," coTi^'Tiii;;d Our Candidate, " I am following Paul's ad- 
 vice and beinj., ' 3 1 'hings to all men, if by any mea ,s I may ^am 
 some,'" Jf.feriiog co his engagement to attend bothci.urch gather- 
 ings. 
 
 " A very strained, if not irreverent application of Pa jl's words, ' 
 said Nora. 
 
 " ,-Mmost as strained as The Mail Bag's report of Friday 
 night's meeting," said the J. C, addressing himself to Miss Toll, 
 when he saw that both she and the Candidate were lapsing into 
 meditation again. "Listen: • 
 
 i i 
 
 I i 
 
 " ANOTHER VICTORY FOR GOOD GOVERNMENT. 
 
 " The work goes bravely on in North Flat. At the meeting in the 
 Scotch settlement last night, Major Foundling spoke in behalf of the 
 government candidate and carried the meeting by storm. A lot of 
 rowdies led by a local pill-dispenser who has tried to represent that 
 intelligent neighborhood in Parliament, made an effort to break up the 
 meeting but did not succeed until the Major had thoroughly exposed 
 the shallow sophistries of Free Trade. Such tactics make more certain 
 than ever the success of the Protectionist candidate in the North Riding 
 of Flat County." 
 
 "The Earth tells quite a different story," said Nora, turning to 
 a page of brief reports of meetings in all parts of the Province : 
 
 " A DISGRACEFUL TORY DEVICE. 
 
 '* A meeting was called by Mr. Guilford, the coming raMmber for 
 
 North Flat, on Friday night in that part of the riding v rejoices 
 
 in the typical designation of 'Satanville.' Seeing that ithering 
 
 Was overwholmiiigiy opposed to the pi'esent corrupt ad, ; »&. .'atioo, a 
 
 angof Tory hireliL„- assembled near the door an'' mv*''^ right, which 
 
 roke up the meetir .d prevented the able and <= " represents- 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 71 
 
 of Fii jI's words," 
 
 Qing 
 
 ra-imber for 
 
 Ig V 
 
 that 
 ad. 
 
 4-' 
 
 Tejoices 
 
 ithering 
 
 ; jB' .'ation, a 
 
 ' right, which 
 
 representa- 
 
 t.v,: of Liberal principles Dr. Goliath, from exposing the brazen as- 
 r*r*,n^l?f.?^^""*'' ^^"'^'^'•"g a"d the absurdity of his Protectionist 
 
 I wonder what fool sent that report to The Earth?" said Our 
 Candidate. It will only Hurt our cause to say anything disparaging 
 about the settlement or the Major, who is every inch a gentleman 
 If there were no Earth there would be more harmony in the Lib- 
 eral oarty and m the country." 
 
 Haying delivered himself of this liberal opinion, Our Candi- 
 date lapsed mto contemplation of the smoke-wreaths he had 
 become wonderfully clever at curling. 
 
 "This once great organ of the Reform party has lost caste, I'm 
 afraid, said the junior counsel, with a pretended sadness in his 
 
 *°?.^,'ifu^ Pn'^'^^ "P ^^^ l^^P^'^ ^'■o'" where Nora had let it fall 
 Why so? she asked, with sufficient interest in her tone to 
 encourage further conversation. " What particular change has 
 come over it ? Father, I kr )w, never admired it." 
 
 " Ah ! that is easily understood. Your father could hardly be 
 expected to admire a journal that rose into prominence by the 
 bitterest denunciation of the very convictions he must hold most 
 dear. Presbyterianism and Liberal politics owe much of their 
 ascendency in this Province to the man who founded this paper 
 and Its readers had so associated the paper and its great editor 
 that to them the former has little value without the latter " 
 
 Miss Toll was listening. The J. C was pleased to find him- 
 self entertaining her, and he ventured further : 
 ^^ ''There is a striking illustration in this paper," he continued, 
 
 of the way time brings round its revenges. Its founder and its 
 present editor would make a poor illustration of Damon and 
 Pythias. All political parties are liable to have their ruptures 
 but it IS an inherent quality of the more liberal of the two parties 
 dividing this country. There is the practical wing and the 
 theoretical wing, and they each want to sail by different courses 
 to one alleged end. The founder of this paper and the practical 
 
 r^-^^5"'^"^^'* element that he had drawn around him and 
 sohdified into a comparative conservatism, took one course and 
 the present leader of the party with the brash and brilliantly 
 theoretical wmg took another. It was during one of the widest 
 flights of the latter that the present editor of this paper went to 
 the provincial metropolis and started a handsome daily news- 
 paper, under the smile and favor of the present Liberal lead<'r 
 
 \ Its presence was entirely ignored by the veteran editor, the 
 real leader of the older wmg; so much so that the name of the 
 new paper never appeared in the old paper's columns. That is 
 
 >- 1 
 
 
72 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 a way the great fever of all liberalism known as ' the press ' has 
 of expressing its liberality toward a young and struggling publi- 
 cation. There is no evidence that such a course materially 
 affects the life or death of a new journal, but if it lives it sooner 
 or later has to be acknowledged by its ' esteemed cotemporaries.' 
 This one did not live. Like many another grand idea, it was 
 born too soon, being born before the founder of The Earth died 
 or his influence had much diminished. But a time came when 
 an appeal somewhat stronger than party prejudices was 
 made to the country. It was an appeal to men's pockets, 
 an appeal which when made to man in the mass, is 
 stronger than appeals to his politics, his piety or his principles. 
 It was a proposal to promote commercial greatness by impeaing 
 the natural channels of trade. It was a scheme to make a 
 liberal-minded people great by appealing to their selfishness ; and 
 it succeeded so well that the more radical wing of the Liberal 
 party was charmed into assent to it. They thought they saw 
 success for themselves in falling into line with the large selfish 
 element which the new policy had developed, and with that com- 
 bination they ^jroceeded to depose The Earth's leader of the 
 party. But they could not depose The Earth's editor. Only 
 death could do that ; and it came, as you know, in a melancholy 
 form. Then the brilliantly theoretical wing was in the ascendant, 
 and great things were promised. The now dominant faction 
 bought up the plant and subscription list of this old sledge- 
 hammer of Reform, and thought they could wield it. The new 
 leader brought on his favorite editor again, and he whom the 
 founder of a great newspaper had scorned, stood in the founder's 
 shoes." 
 
 *' Your recital runs like a bit of fiction," said Miss Toll. 
 
 "£\it it is a part of the facts of history," said the J. C, "and 
 this poor old journal has been made to swallow itself again and 
 again since then ; until, if a newspaper were a sentient thing, 
 this would blush for shame at its own wantonness." 
 
 " There are two kinds of newspapers," broke in Our Candi- 
 date, who had evidently been listening to his junior's story, 
 " which a thoughtful man can respect. They may or may not be 
 party papers ; that is not what determines their worth in a com- 
 munity. In one the editor is so broad and liberal that he can 
 compass the popular mind on any given question and reflect it 
 in his columns without reference to his personal feelings, and his 
 paper comes to be accepted as a reliable index of popular opin- 
 ion rather than a maker of it. In the other, the editor has an 
 individuality which he stamps upon his paper, and it is under- 
 
 i a 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 78 
 
 stood and accepted as that man's views, receiving such approval 
 as popular opinion accords to them. But the grfat muhuSde of 
 what we are pleased to call newspapers are simply prh^?ed sheet/ 
 bTr'oVttteT "Th"e''tir ' The T ^°.P'--g ^^ ' ' "4\'st nS 
 
 n ;:; ":;r.eriLrd ^^^:: ,z::ii rpSityt 
 
 what they wrote. Those were the day/ when papers were edited 
 in the editorial room ; now they are more generally edhed in hJ 
 counting room. The idea that newspapers^irayfreflect iubMc 
 opinion took a marvelous hold on the human mind when pHnted 
 sheets first appeared, and the severest shocks tohuman credul hv 
 have not altogether destroyed that hold. The idea mav hl2 
 sufficient truth to always maintain a measure ooSr ^ak^h fnit 
 But in speaking of * the power of the press ' in fhp=^ T 
 should be careful to disti'nguish betwLn'" "at wo'der Ll pi^ceTf 
 rnechanism devised for the multiplication of printed sheets and 
 
 Toll" but, though the thought had hardrt£ s^e t ^y 
 
 •^Tell us of that instance, Nora," said Our Candidate lavina 
 aside his pipe and bnnging his chair a little nearer her? ' •' S 
 are becoming wonderfully interested in politics this election » 
 
 This was the first time the J. C. had heard Our r!n^ ^ / j 
 dress our fair Sunday entertainer by her first n^me and h". ' 
 netic attraction that seemed to exist between^h; "wo chaK" 
 suggested that Our Candidate was becomingiV rested fn !Z ' 
 thing besides politics. However, the ancient adCftt„.'^KTow 
 Thyself is never so much ignored as in aF of love and k.^ 
 reasonable to believe that the remark just made by Our Cand 
 date set Nora thinking not of any connection there migh' be 
 between her interest in politics and her interest in Our rSn ? 
 but of that mysterious Revelation with Tith Tnhn «J "^f ^J 
 
 ^ threatened heJ: father if she reSd ternary h m and w"h?ch "if. 
 
 f ^f.T ""Pi'^y ^" '^' P^^''*'--^' stratagems o^Norfh Flat O 
 
 why did her father continue to embroil himself in these n-M-«?' 
 
 scrambles for public office when they aroused such bUt'^rn^^ > 
 
 She might as well have asked herself why she was hm IvT" 
 
 I drawn into a political ror.ni.V.H-on th-i^ h^A T ^ ^'"^ 
 
 I All she mighi know was ^v .^Vhat the c^reeTof ?h? l'"^"'^^- 
 
 I willed ..en and women is .argdy an involuntary one.'' ^'""^"^ 
 
tmr 
 
 74 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 '• Well, the instance v.i :. i.cicenary newspaper thar l have in 
 mind," said Nv a, "is :he Catchemtown Comet. I came across 
 an editorial in that — ' luminary,' I believe you call it — lately in 
 which the pii'>''sher belittled his own father's public services in 
 contrasting them with the present candidate's ability and in- 
 fluence, and for no possible reason than the very apparent one of 
 standing well with the man whom he evneo*', will have influence at 
 the Capital nfxt term, I hav*^ '. -iu idvuor bo^st thnt he has 
 taker, that paper ever since it started, and I don't think he will 
 stop it now, though he has left its party for the other ; but I shall 
 never value it again. There is something so hideously groveling, 
 so bjse and unfilial in that act that I feel a repugnance to hand- 
 ling 'he paper even while I read its few items of local news. The 
 very paper on which it is printed feels as if it might tarry the 
 i'o tagion of its mercenary spirit." 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! ha !" laughed Our Candidate. " Why, that is only 
 newspaper policy during a political campaign," he said. " It 
 doesn't mean anything among professional politicians, while it is 
 expected to influence the 'intelligent elector.' You must not 
 consider anytliing of that sort as i -.eant seriously by the parties 
 themselves. They no doubt • egard it all as a good joke. T am 
 sure they would if they saw the serious face yoti have just oeen 
 wearing on account of it. O dear," continued Our Candidate, 
 (.utting on a rueful face and tone, " what a lot you women will 
 have to learn when you are g'iven that right to vote you are agi- 
 tating for, and go into politics," and Our Candidate threw him- 
 self back in the big arm chair and laughed immoderately at 
 Nora's lugubrious countenance 
 
 "And so words do not meai. the same t'ang when printed in 
 newspapers that they do when spol- n ? " said Nora, brightening. 
 
 "Not in a poli il campaign, ar vay, Nora, But I don't know 
 that ypu can draw .le line at what is spoken and written exactly, 
 there may be insincerity in both." 
 
 "Then all they say ^bout father in these political campaigns 
 ir.ay be only aid in mii, and the people who heit. will understand 
 that they are only election jokes." 
 
 " Maybe," said Our Candidate with 
 scions that he had not yet rightly ci 
 
 ?•' me hesi«;ation, as if r on- 
 
 ; /eytd to Nora's ni'iid the 
 
 incer y in political discussions. 
 
 ^t opose there w e a dozen 
 
 nt i the Comet's rail in Miat 
 
 than you think," said [iss Toll, 
 
 distinction between sham ant' 
 " But," he continued, '* I dia 
 person:, in North I lat who 1 
 matter." 
 
 "We are better astronomers 
 making an effort to speak cheerfully by taking up the metaphor Our 
 
OUR CANDIDATE, 
 
 75 
 
 Candidate had beirun ck^ 
 
 forced con.piinK.nf to the^ntdlif.^n'cr'of !h""' ^'''^ '^^ - 
 finH 7''^ \«°'"euhat clouded fare "he add.H 'm "'^^ P«°'>'«- 
 '^"d,,'^^"'" 'his talk al,out the press th^^ "^^ •^'" '""^ '° 
 
 of all the luminaries in the in. S !■ I ^^^ ^"""^^ '^ a fair tyne 
 study them now." *" Journalistic heayens. I shall cease fo 
 
 swe^Jig ^ that:''i?:VSl^r^- " ^ .^'^. -t -an to be so 
 ;s susceptible to human Snesse "T,;T''^"^r' ^"^ ^^ -ch 
 therciore think it altoeether S m " ^ *""'^ "ot have vou 
 cheaply produced, are' oft n pu1;iishe7tr '^'"' '' '^^^ ^^ "«- 
 utter personal spleen. True U?. nni- '"" '^'"''^ P^"/ ends and 
 of merchandise/a newspap^: E"?s •" ^^" "^^^^ ^^ - -'-le 
 
 "What:'. hlt^bZ^^c^ZZVr'T^'' beamed in her ey.s 
 press- means mu,c currec JTpea in'^' V'^^ ^'''^^' '"^hack'i^d 
 P^ess.'" "y speaking, a (ree and unshekeled 
 
 ..I 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 KOMINATION DAY in NORTH FLAT 
 
 pA/:^j;;-:::r^„;;;^,^;f|3; reticent and taciturn wire- 
 
 was unusunuy quie^ in^h^campa^•' '"g^r^ '" ^"^^h Flat. 
 
 those who were opi ■ to him nS „ , f"ends, as well as 
 
 ' uncommunicative ev. moro.T P° ""^^"y' observed that he was 
 
 i>t. Butashedid alUhat fdf :'hTm:sTl'' ? 'o- to account f" 
 pleader of the party with cn.?nn '^ '^^^' adviser and special 
 
 even vehemence^hlVh d n^^g^ounTofTn'^^r' ^'^^^ 
 
 see fit to take them into his coSence as j^lfil''^^ " ^'^^' "ot 
 
 Jly seemed to do that was his own i ^ ^ ^' ''^ '^^^ ^ornier- 
 
 Imarking the change that had con " 'I"^''' ^"^ beyond re- 
 
 Ithemselves about it. °""' ^"^'^ ^.m nobody interested 
 
 One of those moves for which T Tnn.c u- . 
 fndm which his chief value to his D{rtv'"^'''i°" ^^^ P^-"har 
 jjght when arrangements beV-Tn f^ k ^ consisted was brought to 
 speeches. The ^ele^'fon law provide'IJ''^' ''[ Nomination' Day 
 nommation of a fit and proper^pe son ,o '""^'^ ^""^ '^' ^^^-a^ 
 any provision for the discussion ^f k, ° .represent the Riding 
 politicians and Dartvnrlt?,!.':!." °^.P|>bl.c issues being le- to th^^ 
 pi the law the officiarnomination of S"^?^^' theltrict letter 
 
-ff 
 
 76 
 
 OUR CANDIDATK. 
 
 iMf 
 
 ill 
 
 i ! 
 
 !'ll' 
 
 of to bring together as large a body of the electors as possible to 
 be harangued upon the issues of the campaign. On this occasion 
 North Flat was to 1 especially moved upon by the Conservative 
 pirty for the campaign was drawing to a close and as yet there had 
 been no grand rallv of their forces calculated to enthuse them. 
 Flaming posters were issued announcing a grand mass meetmg 
 of the electors of North Flat at the Catchemtown Hall, to begin 
 immedi-^tely after the nominations were closed, the meeting to be 
 addressvd "by an eminent speaker from a distance,' as the an- 
 nouncement indefinitely read. 
 
 Upon inquiry bv our friends it was found that the meeting was 
 intended to be a thoroughly one-sided one. Investigation dis- 
 closed that J. Jones Pinkerton had engaged the 1 own Hall iOr 
 that day from the hour it should be vacated by the officer ap- 
 pointed to receive the nominations. He had been careful to 
 enter into a written contract and he held the hall for his own use 
 
 against all comers. . j * i 
 
 Our managers had been asleep and the enemy had stolen a 
 march upon tliem. They were much chagrined, but they at once 
 set to work to offset as far as possible the advantage that had 
 been gained. To all entreaties and threats made to obtain a 
 hearing for our side at their meeting our opponents were dumb. 
 They could be neither threatened nor shamed into giving our 
 side what we were pleased to call " a fair show." Their candi- 
 date was utterly without ability as a public speaker, and thus far 
 through the campaign he had found it convenient to be engaged 
 in a different part of the riding from Our Candidate, leaving it 
 to his friends to speak in his behalf. Our Candidate's managers 
 bad suggested as one of the strongest arguments for a joint 
 meeting that this would bring the two men face to face and give 
 the people an opportunity to contrast their merits. This on the 
 other band was the very strongest possible reason for the friends 
 of the other candidate opposing such a plan. Just in proportion 
 as one urged this was the other impressed with the necessity of 
 
 avoiding it. ' , I 
 
 The strategy of J. Jones Pinkerton seemed now to serve an ex-j 
 cellent point for his party and he was proportionally congratula-l 
 ted on his shrewdness; but it also suggested some points to hisl 
 enemies. They at once set about providing a counter attraction! 
 The Fair Ground was rented for that day, the Catchemtown brassi 
 band engaged, a grand picnic was arranged, the receipts fronil 
 whiVV" were to be apolied to a local charity. A long programme^ 
 of games, with prizes to be awarded, was announced to follow tiic||| 
 refreshments served at noon. 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 77 
 
 »ch?mViir:?d\nr';'„':r;:f„;''V''''"'''.°''''''p''"-'''''<>pi'= 
 
 concession and ide-roaS ^ Nn?^','°?l'"^ '"'° '°^^" ^y ^^^^^ 
 
 given up to the Inn^lv .>r«>..„^ r ,""^ y*^*^ ^"^ i own Hall was 
 four persons necessa V to m"'" ""^ \^' ^'^^"'""'"e ^ffi^'-'r «nd the 
 the two candidate the ^ilh.:^l '"h' '*^'-°"d ^^e nominations of 
 Ground, severarbbcks a ' ! ' ^ *'^ '?"^'"« ^'^ ^° ^'^^ F^*^ 
 
 With ^on.cS n ore th^n^'.h "^ "'" ^''"'^' ^'"'^Se went after it. 
 arrangement K,renerthu',h"'r?r'y ^^'^^ '-^"^"^'"S «"^h 
 hour appointed by Sur onn ^ '^'? "'"'''^ ^''^^^^ J"st at the 
 meeting.^ Nobody was JUT' /"' ^''^^P^ni^S of their n.ass 
 speech! at let 7obody 'bu "fuch a''::re ! "". '""'^^ ^ '^^^^ ^^ 
 success of the little sch'eme inltituted by pSt^ " ''^ 
 
 cro^^^-il^/er d'r th:;r '^B^S^ -,^'f^1^-er part of the 
 freely that we we e o Lv. "'°'.''- '^'^ ^^^" P^^^^d around 
 
 he would have to say But fh." '' '^"^^"'' '"'^'^^ ''« ^"^ what 
 ed a train, as the e^nen^ Lnf. ^^'"^"^"^gentleman " had mis.- 
 therefore had to be done bf thelTfl"'" ^^''" ^^- '^'"^^ ^P^^l^'^K 
 
 been doing the county fo weeTsn:r'?"r'"'^°"Y'^ 
 ments and anecdotes were -,« « ^ I f"^ '^'^^^^ ^'o^k argu- 
 
 repealedly clothed in A ThT '' '^' '^^^^^^ '^^'^ had been 
 more, drawn by a desire fl ! "^"''."^ lengthened out, a few 
 passing, had driLd ov /fron,'^^^^^ T^^'"!"^ ^'^^^ ^- 
 
 as the last speaker got the fllr fh Grounds to the hall, until 
 of North Flat electors of bmhc^HV''','?"^^'^ representation 
 This encouraged the speaker and hi 1 '"''1''^^ °f^'"'°" P^^^^"^' 
 condemnation of hfs opponent. ''V"""^'?^^ T ^'''^y '" ^arsh 
 they thought a clever bifofHnl. " ^^ ^'^e defeat of what 
 
 , were in a mood to Ihow heir ?r'"^. concorning the hall, they 
 judgment, and he asT n^lV ^^' '° ^'' ^^e better of their 
 
 |''theoppositioVcandidL:'^:!^4!^:j"tV°S'' " ^° declare that 
 [and defend his cause-" ii; f],7f'Z"'^ J'^'.T "P"" ^^e platform 
 I his friends to come forward ''^ ^'' ^"'^^^^^ °^ ^"X ^^ 
 
!;^ ■ i 
 
 if*"!* 
 
 
 
 ^i „i 
 
 78 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 This was a most unfair challenge. The afternoon was advanc- 
 ed and the people were tired and uneasy to be starting homeward. 
 The animus of this last-hour challenge was apparent even to 
 those who were unacquainted with the previous refusal to give 
 our side a hearing, and to those of our friends who knew the par- 
 ticulars this pretension of courage was very aggravating. But no- 
 body seemed ready to respond. 
 
 While the friends of Our Candidate were still looking at one 
 another in a stupefied silence there stepped to the front of the 
 platform our over-grown awkward young friend from " the 
 Comers," Jim Bigson. Nobody had noticed him, sitting in the 
 very front seat throughout the long meeting, listening attentively 
 to the best that was offered. It seemed as if he might have risen 
 through the floor for all anyone had known before of his 
 presence. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Jim, " I accept the challenge the speaker 
 has just concluded with and all I want to say is this, that the 
 challenge is a dishonorable and cowardly one. Mr, Guilford and 
 his friends asked several days ago that he be allowed to address 
 this meeting to-day jointly with his opponent and he was refused, 
 they having secured the hall and controlled it. Now, when the 
 time is spent and they know Mr. Guilford is not present to ac- 
 cept the challenge thrown out they propose to make capital for 
 themselves by daring him to come forward. It is a cowardly" — 
 But by this time the uproar was great and Jim's nervous voice 
 and gesticulation were lost in that of the multitude. It was a 
 great thing for a consciously awkward and bashful country boy 
 to do, and tho' he was both large and strong his whole frame 
 shook with nervous emotion. But his excitement seemed to the 
 meeting only to give vehemence to the words he spoke. He had 
 put in order in the moment that preceded his stepping upon the 
 platform the sentence or two that would expose the trick of the 
 men who had controlled the meeting and that much he uttered 
 before the confusion within him and around him overcame him. 
 What sort of a speech Jim would have been able to make in Our 
 Candidate's behalf had the meeting given him a chance will 
 never be known. He had as yet formed no strong party convic- 
 tions though he was deeply interested in political questions, and 
 it was only his strong sense of justice that had aroused him and 
 forced him to his feet at this critical moment. But what he said 
 was just what best served the purpose of the situation. That in- 
 iicrcnt sensc Oi rigut in mankinu WniCn nas a'ways rcuccmeu i*. 
 from the charge of total depravity, was touched by Jim's words, 
 and nothing could now prevent the meeting from giving the other 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 79 
 
 side a hearing. In the increasing clamor a pretense wa.= made bv 
 
 O^rtSdL' i:,t Tt^' ' ''T' '"^ ^^^ "'^ found SamTio o'f 
 uur Ljandidate, but it was only a pretense made in the soirit of 
 
 nd.cule, for as the noise lessened somewhat somebody on the 
 
 platform proposed "three cheers for Smith," which was a Mnt to 
 
 their friends to close the meetinc. "^"* ^° 
 
 back and another a..en,p, n,adeTo clo'se^^.L n, "n^^y ""o^t- 
 ing three cheers for the Queen." ^ ^ propos 
 
 At the same moment that Jim Bigson had sprung into thf^ 
 breach some of our friends in the back part of the mfe W had 
 recovered their wits sufficiently to be seized with thl Zll r^ 
 ning to tell Our Candidate of the ctlTengf off red .im and Tusi 
 GolahinH''"'' ^ entered the hall, follow:rcSy by C 
 Oolia.h and several other of his faithful henchmen This was the 
 signal for the most uproarious applause. Never had 'he Catch 
 eintown Hall had Us roof and walls so expanded by the acclaim 
 
 shoSr's If tlLfr "f •■' H ""^ V"° '^^^^ '^ ^-- lifted upon th" 
 snouiders of their friends and carried over the head<! nf th^ 
 
 crowd to the platform ; order was soon partially estabhshed and 
 
 as Our Candidate began to address the .neeting^n his quiel and 
 
 de .berate way a c:reat many of his noisiest opponems^"ef the 
 
 hall, mortified beyond endurance at the turn things had taken 
 
 anVe'rir'^'^' "^"''^"^^ ^'""^"^^ -^ Jim Bg:„':tctt. 
 
 wa^^L'^manlrtmn tn'f ',rf ^°"^' '°^ ^'^ ^"^"^' ^^e Doctor, 
 was me man to tusn to fullest account such an opnortunitv a^ 
 
 his. As he came forward our friends rent the air'^S "xnres 
 s^ons of approval. The man of natural oraLical power was 
 7n7hi\'^u '''"';'°" ^° ^° '^-'^ best and he did it X after 
 Ten the Ihr' °^ °"' ^^7°"^"^^ ^^o were on the pTatfo m 
 tevf .nH '^^^2''''''^ ^"'"'^ ^'^^"^^d themselves upon one pre- 
 text and another and drifted out. It was very late and the 
 
 uy tne power of the Doctor s eloquence. They went thev <;a,-rf 
 to ge something to eat and would return. BuToT, tsidersiarn 
 ing what had transpired at the Town Hall drifted ?na^d an audi" 
 ence of fair proportions was kept up through the supper hour" 
 
 \iS\:r-r,t' '^V'^ ^Peakeruntil^he lamTcould be 
 It- ^J^. ?".^ I" the mtenm our brass band whirh h.H u^"^ 
 |b.uagn. into the hali played a stirring selection. The w"hile 'this 
 
 platfoTir '^' T'i'' ^^P* ^^^ ^"^ ^"d his place on the 
 platform lest one of the enemy should spring up to speak^ 
 

 'H*»«Hl 
 
 
 1 K y 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 and again be launched into his subject. He arraigned the Gov- 
 ernment on every conceivable issue of the campaign, and when 
 he had exhausted all the counts he went back to the first. The 
 audience that had grown small grew large again, until all the space 
 was occupied ; and still the talker talked on, until bis friends 
 behind him smiled at his oft reiterated arguments and even the 
 changing audience felt something of monotony in the discourse. 
 But the Doctor was evidently bent on showing North Flat what 
 he could do in an emergency, and he kept the floor until such 
 a late hour that there could be no possibility of the enemy re- 
 turning to occupy it. Then his almost unanimous meeting gave 
 him three rousing cheers, three were given for Our Candidate, 
 three for the leader of Her Majesty's loyal opposition, and three 
 and a tiger for the Queen ; and Nomination Day in North Flat, 
 which had once loomed up so darkly before our friends closed in 
 a signal victory for Our Candidate and our cause. 
 
 M 
 
 ' CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 FATHER innocent's PICNIC. 
 
 There was a great deal of worldly wisdom in the arrangement 
 by which the congregation of St. Yusef's Church held their an- 
 nual picnic in the last days of an exciting political campaign, 
 when party feeling ran the highest. There were various schemes 
 and devices by which this partisan enthusiasm could be made to 
 temporarily obscure religious differences and prejudices and turn 
 money into the church coffers. And as the managers of the pic- 
 nic had shown no compunction about making religious capital out 
 of the political commotions of the campaign, so the promoters of 
 the political fortunes of the North Flat candidates felt no back- 
 wardness about using the picnic as a means to further their ends. 
 If there were some features of the picnic not consistent with 
 professions of, piety, they were equally inconsistent with the pro- 
 fessed honesty of politics. But our professions and aspirations 
 have always been a satire on our deeds and institutions., and there 
 would have been nothing incongruous about this mingling of 
 politics and religion if it had not been for the childlike innocence 
 with which all such relations are disavowed. 
 
 The unfortunate turn of the nomination day meeting had been 
 a grievous thing tor the Conservatives, and another effort must be 
 made to unite and enthuse their forces for election day, now so 
 
 H 
 
 f*-^ 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 81 
 
 Close at hand The candidates being invited were given full 
 leave invite their friends, and the rlsult was an array of ora 
 toncal talent from distant cities such as had not graced any of th; 
 purely political gatherings of the campaign ^ 
 
 The young ladies of St. Yusefs Church had been active and 
 persistent m the sale of tickets for Father Innocent's picn?c 
 Their visits and the assurance with which they made their de: 
 
 oTNorth VC^^If "''' ^'^" ' 'V^^ aggravat'ion co the peop e 
 of North Flat. The young men of Catchemtown, who, for the 
 most part hved upon limited salaries, were cornered beh nd 
 counters and office chairs by a bevy of the fair creatures and 
 importuned in such a personal way that life became a perpetual 
 nightmare to them. The girls went in companies wTth the aCr 
 ent purpose of reinforcing one another in the coHoquial Se 
 
 beinfrk-rarhinH" 'r'"^""^ ''''''''■ ^ ^^^"-^ entSme'nt 
 being rlcse at hand, whenever a suspected group of such youne 
 
 ladies appeared on the distant horizon, the su ceptible cSn 
 
 would beat a hasty retreat, making a back room or an inner 
 
 storv m double quick time. But if they came upon h°m suddenly 
 
 ha7a tkke7''K h^e'ir'n'r' T''^''''. °^ ^"^^^'^ asserted that fc 
 had a ticket. .If he had bought one he was very apt to have it 
 
 with him as a certificate of character. If he could not produce 
 h^H f- ^° buy. another. To so impugn a man's J^rfcUy or 
 badger h.m thus in any common cause would have been to v oC 
 even the unpohshed conventionalities of rural society But7n the 
 Bv thi/S°"' " '' warrantable and even praiseworthy '^" 
 By this plan many a church society was guaranteed a si-ccess 
 
 It'erlfirnTe' '^T'"'^' °' '''' ^'^^''^^' offered oTX" 
 weather that prevailed. Having made a forced investment in 
 
 u tima rre'war'd of '"'T- '^' *"^^^'°^ ^'^^^^ '^^ed fSu" n t ^ 
 Ultimate reward of such an investment, or was mercenary pnmurK 
 
 BTtVmTa'.'d''-^' '"' ^'' ^'™°^^ ^"-"^b'y in a^tenSr"'' 
 But time aad circumstances all favored the congregation of St 
 
 succes's' "TJne''\ ^""^-^'M-"'^ ^^^ pro'mTe o? great 
 success. Ihe people of Rover Township of every relieions faith 
 and both political creeds turned out in large numbeSan/fh. 
 exhibition grounds of the agricultural sociefy a Rov r Cent 
 
 lE'neuortiro;''^' "'"" • ^''^ "''e'^"^ '-' with "liiSX 
 leminine portion of a community enters nto a church undertaHna 
 
 was in this instance reinforced by the interest w ch the polttical 
 I phase of It awakened in the otherwise lethargic male por on 
 There was nothing about the reHmnn« K. - - Portion. 
 
 'J 
 
 
 JK.egaiiowof St. Vuiefs was a part by vWiic'h'a wiseTnd'imnaSal 
 administnu^on of public affairs would affect them differenUy from 
 
82 
 
 OUR CANBIDATE. 
 
 : ij 
 
 1 
 
 ^E 
 
 '!*<„; 
 
 i ii 
 
 i;i 
 
 the way it affected a Methodist or an Episcopalian. But in an 
 earlier age of the world, when political power was only another 
 name for religious domination, the previous generations of 
 these people of different faiths had been made to suffer bitter 
 things at the hands of the party in supremacy, and it was not 
 easy now to make the less numerous body believe that they were 
 not ctill taken advantage of when the opportunity offered. And 
 knowing that men change very slowly for the better they were 
 hardly to be blamed for the weakness of their faith in the politi- 
 cal virtues of a religious enemy. Of that weakness there were 
 not wanting men to take advantage, and by nursing with tender- 
 esi solicitude the inherited memory of past wrongs they were able 
 to combine and traffic in the votes of these religious classes. The 
 party leaders had learned that they could purchase a measure of 
 support by placing a member of a certain religious body in a 
 position of prominence and patronage, and they frequently did 
 it. In this campaign, one of the most deliberate and brazen ap- 
 peals to the prejudices and selfishness of a section of the electorate 
 had been made by the leader of the government in elevating to 
 a representative position a man who had openly confessed his 
 sympathy with and participation in the schemes of an organization 
 which had for its avowed object the dismemberment of the empire. 
 The advancement of this man to a place he could never have 
 obtained on his own merits, by the party which had continually 
 boasted of its loyalty to the throne, had a fine vein of humor in 
 it for those who were given to studying their political bed-fellows. 
 Nothing could have been more apparent from such a selection 
 than that such devices are mainly intended to influence the ieast 
 intelligent elements of a particular body. He was brought for- 
 ward as one of the speakers at Father Innocent's picnic, with some 
 more honorable men, and though he occupied more time and 
 made himself more conspicuous than the rest, there was reason 
 to hope, from the generous spirit of his utterances, that such com- 
 panionship was more beneficial to himself than injurious to his 
 hearers. 
 
 But platform declamation, when it has no apparent antagonism 
 in it, soon becomes wearisome to an audience, and the virtuous 
 platitudes and mild political insinuations of a religio-political 
 picnic hardly sustained any interest beyond a curiosity to see 
 what the personal appearance of the political lions was. 
 
 A feature of the picnic that was more to the purpose of its 
 
 **• 'o' ****'*' "" "" :"**"*"1j "•;* '* D"'"" ""^ ^ .. - -— a'-" 
 
 sented to that party's candidate which received the largest num- 
 ber of votes, the voting power, in this case as in the electoral 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 83 
 
 fi canfi. to be nre- 
 
 franchise, being a question of financial qualincation-a vote bein? 
 counted for every five cents the friends of the respective candi- 
 dates were willing to deposit in the church coffers 
 
 Pretty country girls, whose sweet persuasiveness strengthened 
 into assurance untd it threatened to turn the rosy tint upon their 
 cheeks to a metallic hue, flitted about the grounds in the harm o 
 nious interest of their church and the rival in teres s of theTrrel 
 spective candidates. The men joined in the canvass with all the 
 enthusiasm of a regular election day. It was understood on both 
 sides that the winning or losing of the cane would have its effect 
 upon the actual voting on the following Tuesday, Ind the interes 
 increased with every announcement of the state of the pol The 
 ^''ur^uTu''^" contagious, and after a few bulletins had been 
 
 Sf.MV^''' :r' '''^ ^^" P^°P'^ °" 'he grounds who had no 
 taken sides on the cane question and contributed one or mo?e 
 votes. Some of the excitable partisans invested all they had [n 
 their purses and then joined the girls in soliciting from others 
 Some of cooler judgment and more wisdom preferrfd to use thek 
 money m betting on the winner, and large' stakes were in some 
 I lEe church. "^' '° '^' ^'''' ^"^'"^^^ "' '^' g'^'« ^"d matron'of 
 Miss Toll was present, as she invariably was in any important 
 
 both. But this was not a usual occasion with her. There wala 
 deeper concern in her mind regarding what was transpiring Ibout 
 her than she had heretofore felt. The girlish abandon that had 
 before characterized her when she joined a party of Eeryoune 
 friends in church gatherings was now suddenly laUi aside ^ He? 
 deep interest m the result of the voting restrained her nstead of 
 mpelling her to action. But she could not analyze her feeling 
 
 n th".'t'""°""/T^'' '"^- ^'' '"'^"'^^ ^«^« t°« '"^ch abso bed 
 iu ^ J^'^ '.'^ 'h^ occasion to note her abstraction 
 
 a sensroVw ''•''' "^"."«^^^.^ '" ^er letter to John Swanson, and 
 hhr u. i burning indignation arose in her mind whenever si e 
 t i?a ion Wl ,'" -Jf-crifice and ignoring her com! 
 CSr";H- ^}'^'^^^J'''P ^ow, and not him only but, since 
 
 |son was a part^'''''°°' '" '^'' P°'^'^^^^ ^'^"^^"' ^^ which Swan- 
 
 m5.''fi,^*°'"^/°\ ^ *'""^ ^'°"^- '"^^""d the border of the crowd 
 
 aw or r.n'll /^'"'."^' P"'' "'• '"^" ^"^ ^""^'•" board and 
 
 bait box!^ "' ''°''' """ ''"^'"^^'"g '^t"rns from the 
 
 baid^°"'rrnl"TV' f^'' °" '' ''.^"'" '"^" '^'' f'"^^' ^'"^s Toll," 
 pam J. Jones Pinkerton, approaching Nora with his usual half- 
 

 ■: 
 
 
 ■' 
 
 
 84 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 patronizing manner and tone, which in this case he tried to 
 modulate into something non-committal between jegret and un- 
 concern. It was the studied style of the political wire-puller who 
 never commits himself definitely to anything, but the modulation 
 was made a little more difficult in this case by reason of the 
 speaker's personal interest in the person addressed. 
 
 In some indefinable way Nora Toll had to-day been made to 
 feel as her father did the unexpressed condemnation by his friends 
 for the desertion of his party, and it might have been this or the 
 self-consciousness of her interest in one of the candidates that 
 made her answer take the form of a defense. 
 
 ",I have always tried to be, on the side of right," she said. 
 
 "I do not think there is much choice in party politics," said 
 Pinkerton, in a tone that left it in doubt whether he meant to 
 defend his own party or disparage the other. 
 
 "I suppose they are what individuals make them," said Nora, 
 in the same measured tone that might or might not mean any 
 particular individuals. 
 
 "Your vote and influence is respectfully solicited for John 
 Smith," said John Swanson, breaking into the labored conversa- 
 tion between Pinkerton and Miss Toll, with a loud voice and a 
 form of obeisance to the lady that was intended to be complaisant 
 without expressing any genuine feeling. Seeing Pinkerton in 
 conversation with the woman his selfish nature had only really 
 begun to desire when there was evident prospect of some one 
 else obtaining her, his envious jealousy had forced him to disre- 
 gard the Colonel's severe note of dismissal, and with as much of 
 the indifferent air as under the circumstances he could assume, 
 he went on, " Smith is going to win, and I know both of you want 
 to be on the winning side." 
 
 Pinkerton may have waited in deference to the sex for Nora to 
 reply to Swanson's rally. At any rate he did not answer. He 
 really liked Swanson as little as Miss Toll did, though he had 
 never regarded him as a rival for her affections. It was rather as 
 an interrupter of his tete-a-tete conversations with Miss Toll in her j 
 home in times past as now on the picnic grounds that Pinkerton 
 had come to ardently detest the fellow. 
 
 "Not so anxious if ' Smith and winning 'must go together,"! 
 said Nora, her animosity toward Swanson and his political asso-j 
 ciates leading her into an expression of feeling that might be con- 
 strued as interest in Our Candidate instead of what she would! 
 have herself and them believe was only love for her father. On| 
 the instant her countenance changed from the expression oi! 
 bravado with which she had uttered the words to one of chagrin 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 86 
 
 at her mistake, but she was saved from the danger of attempting 
 to mend it, by a group of girls, who, seeing her apparently loiter- 
 ing, paused in their onSet upon the picnickers' purses to eet her 
 important aid. ° 
 
 "Come and help us, Miss Toll. Smith's away ahead, and we 
 have only half an hour before the poll closes !" 
 
 It was an opportune invitation for Nora, and she accepted it 
 saymg an indifferent "good afternoon," which Swanson could not 
 fail to interpret as intended more for Pinkerton than himself 
 
 As the last minutes of the voting drew nigh the excitement 
 became intense The vote was counted every three minutes, 
 i-ather Innocent s assistant grasped the skirts of his tunic with 
 one hand and steadying himself with the other, mounted a barrel 
 and cried: ' Only ten minutes more!" "Get in your votes'" 
 Only seven minutes more!" "Only five minutes more'" 
 Canvassers will now deposit all the money they have, and those 
 who want to vote must come up to the ballot boxes'" " Bring 
 al in now ! shouted the man of God, as he grasped his sacerdo- 
 tal robes again and climbed carefully down from the barrel 
 
 While the early part of the campaign had been left to the young' 
 ladies and such voluntary help as they could get from the men. 
 It was not so when the last moments of the voting arrived With 
 great foresight our friends had relaxed their energies when the 
 last hour was reached, and allowed the other candidate's friends 
 to run him ahead until they began to plume themselves that the 
 enemy s resources were exhausted. But the figures on the black- 
 board only mcreased the determination of our friends to win. 
 Subscriptions were privately taken up and the sum held until the 
 last count before closing the poll was announced. Then a draft 
 tor the whole amount, drawn by a well known and wealthy sup- 
 porter of Our Candidate, was folded carefully within a dollar 
 note so that the small denomination of the note could be seen by 
 all about the ballot boxes as it dropped. The amount of the 
 draft was made to over-lap by several dollars the last majority of 
 the other candidate. But to guard against a final surprise by the 
 enemy another device wa^ arranged. A roll of $150.00 was furn- 
 ished irom the hidden source of campaign funds and this was 
 given to Bill Saunders, who stood near the box ready to drop the 
 sum at the last moment if the occasion seemed to demand it. 
 1 he same idea seemed to have seized our opponents, for J. Jones 
 finkerton was seen to edge his way up to the ballot boxes as the 
 last moments arrived. The two men glared at one another and 
 almost simultaneously they raised their hands and held them over 
 the openings in the boxes. Each was confident that the majority 
 
llrlJMI 
 
 
 I 
 
 86 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 as it Stood was in his favor, and each waited for the other to drop 
 the money. The gathering about the ballot-boxes had crowded 
 itself into a com|)act mass that entirely shut out any more voting, 
 and the nervous tension had reached that height where it changes 
 from noisy acclaim to silent intensity. 
 
 Probably in the expectation that something woiild occur to 
 break the spell and cause the two North Flat political schemers 
 to lose their hold on the money suspended over the boxes, it was 
 announced that the time of voting was extended five minutes. 
 But this had not the effect intended. There was renewed crowd- 
 ing and noise on the outer edges of the crowd, but about the 
 boxes it remained intact, and for five mirtutes more the two men 
 stood with their hands on the ballot boxes and their eyes fixed on 
 each other in a half-angry, half-amused scowl. 
 
 The boxes were closed. The final summing up was proceeded 
 with and figure after figure placed upon the bulletin board, with 
 what seemed to the crowd exasperating slowness. 
 
 So intent had been the interest of the crowd on the proceed- 
 ings that nobody seemed to have noticed the clouds gathering 
 overhead, nor, the first drops of a shower now falling. 
 
 GUILFORD 8-6-4- 
 
 Read the figures of the official scribe on the blackboard. Then 
 instead of adding the final figure he wrote below, 
 
 SMITH 8-6-4- 
 
 The crowd stood statue-like in its interest. 
 
 Then going back he added to the Guilford line a "7." 
 
 Everybody stood on tip-toe and strained and jostled to catch 
 the last figure, "4.". 
 
 Up went the shout for Our Candidate, and the clouds in the 
 heavens were as nothing in blackness to the clouds on the faces 
 of the chop-fallen enemy. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A POIJTICAL MARTYR. 
 
 The rain that had begun falling as the picnic broke up, con- 
 tinued and increased, and the picnickers, after waiting a time in 
 hopes of a clearing-up, began to take to their vehicles in the face 
 of the storm. Our Candidate, who bad purposely avoided Nora 
 during the day because of the sensitiveness he knew she and her 
 father suffered by reason of his renunciation of former political 
 
 tt 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 87 
 
 the other to drop 
 
 (xes had crowded 
 
 any more voting, 
 
 where it changes 
 
 ; would occur to 
 lolitical schemers 
 the boxes, it was 
 ed five minutes, 
 s renewed crowd- 
 ed, but about the 
 nore the two men 
 heir eyes fixed on 
 
 .ly) was proceeded 
 
 lletin board, with 
 
 s. 
 
 i on the proceed- 
 
 clouds gathering 
 
 illing. 
 
 ackboard. Then 
 
 iea"7." 
 
 ? jostled to catch 
 
 the clouds in the 
 Duds on the faces 
 
 c broke up, con- 
 waiting a time in 
 ihicles in the face 
 iely avoided Nora 
 knew she and her 
 f former political 
 
 riage, completely sheltered from the storm ^overea car- 
 
 The result of the voting had been a little nearer a tie than Our 
 Candidate and h.s friends intended it to be, but the rn'ioritv 
 such as It was was in his favor, and when he h nded Tir he 
 cane for Miss loll s inspection, as they seated themselves in he 
 carriage he was thinking much more of the influence itlwinniW 
 would have upon the undecided electors of North Flat Zn Ttf 
 ntrmsic va ue or the sum it had cost him. If he had not been 
 too much absorbed in the double effort to be gallant to M.^sI^S 
 while his thoughts turned incessantly to the doings of he d^v 
 and the influences that were at work for and against him in 'hese 
 
 " s[eTgran"ci'T f ITTT^ '^ ^'^'^^'hav: obSrvei't": 
 sinister glances ot J. Jones Pmkerton, who stood with others 
 under the veranda of the Farmer's Exchange, watchingthe oic 
 nickers set out for home in a down-pour of rain Or if mI? u J 
 not been in what had become a champed presence to h^r/.J"^ 
 ^^'^'T^ i° ?"•■ Candidate's disconnected cTmnem first'on tl 
 rV' r^ 'iZ '^' P"''^^'^^! ^^^^"^^« °f the day? gathering he 
 might have had a woman's intuitional sense of Vn evil prefcnce 
 when John Swanson's carriage dashed almost savagdy past hers 
 But neither Our Candidate, nor the pirl whrT h!^ . ^ * 
 
 deeply interested in hissucc^s^LJlnrco cptio^'of' thrspiHt 
 of evil they had stirred in the two men who had been watch n^ 
 them during much of the day on the picnic ground ^ 
 
 I want to spend the whole of Monday among the people in 
 Seepy Hollow,' " said Our Candidate. " Thai's the Lstdav 
 before the voting, and the Hollow has always gone strong 
 against us, but if I can do a little work there Trfh. i . ^''^°"g'y 
 and hold a meeting there Monday ^ght, hi l'"c n ^^^"1^ 
 reduce the majority against us. We don't want to sdr ud th^ 
 Nemy any more than we can help, however so I have cXd a 
 
 iignt and had it advertised pretty oudly, so as to divert ^i,«ni 
 ion from the ' Hollow ' meeting. \ shall have 'o forego he" 'o" 
 nrUn h'^..'"!!'^'-^" r '^''' ^he last Sunday of tKampai", 
 
 Jl'L^„:^!:.?".?''^^.l^^^^."°^goi"g to spend Sundav at his ™'"f 
 
 1..,,,,^ „^. ^oioneis. •• What position do you eive father 
 nd me in the order of your friendships ? " ^ ^ 
 
88 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE 
 
 " Oh, come, now," said Our Candidate. " You understood nie 
 better than that. You know I was speaking of neighborhoods 
 and their political friendships, not individuals an ' their pe»-- 
 sonal — " 
 
 He hesitated It might be that he was at a loss for a word to 
 complete the sentence without a repetition. 
 
 "Regard," he added; and would have gone quickly on it the 
 Colonel had not broken in with : 
 
 " Do you think the scheme of bringing the new Catholic Sena- 
 tor into the Riding to speak to-day is gosng to influence the vot 
 of our chiTch people much ? " 
 
 The Colonel had, up to this, been an ind :Terent listener from 
 his place in the front seat, but the words " political friendships " 
 had broken the spell of his meditations, and suggested this in- 
 quiry. 
 
 " No," said Our Candidate. " Father Innocent is my friend, 
 and he that is for me is greater among his parishioners, than all 
 they can bring against me. With his influence and yours I am 
 going to poll tl>e biggest Catholic vote ever polled by a Liberal 
 candidate in North Flat. Father Innocent is naturally a man of 
 Liberal view.s, ai.o also a man of generous impulses. He can't 
 very well help .^ysj^j athizing with the under dog in any fight. 1. 
 he were ov\;j ifi Ireland now nothing could prevent him from 
 favoring the ousd of the tenantry." 
 
 "I'm glad M .'-e about home," said the Colonel, "for it looks 
 as if this was going to be an all night rain." 
 
 It was evident that the Colonel did not care to discuss the del- 
 icate relations between the church and politics. It was the sore 
 spot in his mind ever since his change of political front, and he 
 had had it chafed not a few times that day in mingling with so 
 many old acquaintances. He was conscious that he had lost 
 caste with the friends of many years, who were not at all to blame 
 for the things which had driven him out of the party, and whose 
 coldness was to him well nigh heart-breaking. If they could 
 only have been generous enough to distinguish between the ster- 
 ling character of the man and his political views, as he did 
 between them and the soulless wire-pullers of the party, who 
 were using them as they had used him, for their own profit, he 
 would have been strong in the new steps he was taking. But it 
 was not so. He had left the old party lines where he was a 
 leader and a factor, and where his politics and his religion had 
 run so nearly in concurrent channels. He had joined hands 
 
 1 - - J - -. 
 icauci 
 
 were moved by any higher motive than those he had left ? Had 
 
 fp^.-jii^-^ pait}', anu ilt^-.v uiu. nc R.UUW Liiat iia 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 89 
 
 not Our Candidate iusf «nf^ i . 
 
 this political apostasffLrs !S:f= ')fu^' ''?,«"ded much npon 
 
 the common selfishness he <ondemnL ''""'u'^ only be sure that 
 
 had something t, do with br2i, rhil 'V!^'''\ ''^^ "«' ^rst 
 
 I'beral conviction^ he had long e L^^^^^^ acknowledge the 
 
 more solace in the iriegritv o/ h f '"^''' ''^ ^''»'<^ have%und 
 
 !>een suffering a son of mint P^H'-se. As it was, he had 
 
 could add little to^iis denT^^ "^f "y.^^^"' all day, and ' .^n 
 
 glad when the carr. ge'S °n To ^T ^^-^ "eles Z 
 
 Nora were back ag,-..^ unrt^;h°eirefo?^t"r^or„';o"ot. ^^ ^"^ 
 
 nel, " for it looks 
 
 had left ? Had 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE INTERCEPTED LETTER. 
 
 th^^oT:^^';;;LK-^--^ picnic Much merit as 
 see alike in matt, , of religion /J S ttl\ ""'^'l: '^'^ ^'^ "^^ 
 other was not quite equal ?o the ,nf n fJ°''! ^^^y ^""'^ each 
 faiths. So Mr. Toll persi^tenth „ . r ^ '^'^ ^'^' ^^' ^''^n 
 o«rn way to heaven, 'eavin^tre Lionel f h'"m ''""•'''>' ^^^"' her 
 on the.rs. The daughter, o- of a la?er ^"'^ ^° ^^ ■'^'"tly 
 
 and confiding, was a mal eabl» Hnt .f "^,'^''°"' y°"'hful yet 
 held father and stepmother in bi'^i''" ^^'"e^tic chain tha 
 to each other and drew them vl ml^"'""T^ '^ ^^'''^^ ^"d 
 t'vo strong and ardent natuTes wouM ?..^ '''■'^ "."'^ ^'^^^l that 
 upon Mrs. Toll loved h.rbeautTfaUnd,M''"''"'u '^"^^ ^^^^^ed 
 daughter in spite of the consc ou n.« ' L^^^^f'" >ovable step- 
 nearer and dearer relationship Ss",!,,?"' there must be a 
 Indeed she understood that and aTjowfH f •^'? ^^^^^' ^"^ child, 
 •ncdent that called forth ttsLpi^^ Sh!.'" ''''' ^°'"^«'i'= 
 he relation in which circumstances h/n i^ "^^l ^°"^^"^ ^^th 
 them, for she knew that theTr love L her^ "'' ^'' '° ^°th of 
 way as are any of the ties tLt h^nH ''^^ ^^^^ ^^ genuine in its 
 other. It was'this and her home sin"'" '"^ \°'"^" '^ ^-^^ 
 food spoils by waiting" which led l" ^^'^^^u ''^^^ "I'ttle but 
 and the Colonel had some mvs?erlonI' ""^^^ '^' ^^^ ^^at Nora 
 heir rninds. to leave them toSmsTi """iT '''"l^^ °" ^oth 
 ter relating to the time h-^Sl™- f' ^^ ^^s probably a mat- 
 household and with which ^strictTr.nfr'' \'"ember of the 
 to do. '^"' «t"C"y speaking, she had nothing 
 

 ^^ 
 
 V. 
 
 
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 IMAGE EVALUATION 
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 (716)872-4303 
 
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90 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 :i 
 
 The only deviation Mrs, Toll had made from her domestic policy 
 was the intercepting of Nora's letter. Why she had done it she 
 did not know. The withholding of the letter was an impulse which 
 ever since she would have given her right hand that she had not 
 yielded to. Having taken it, the sense of justice returned to her 
 sufficiently to prevent her opening and reading it. But she had 
 not forwarded it to its destination. Day after day the little note 
 in the dainty envelope had stayed in her pocket, though it hung 
 like a millstone at her side and made very wretched a sturdy 
 mind and body that would not have faltered a jot under the 
 heaviest physical load. She had questioned herself over and over 
 again as to the reason of her taking it and could find no answer 
 that satisfied her intelligence; on the contrary, such conclusions 
 as she came to only aggravated her strong common-sense. Be- 
 tween forwarding it to the person addressed and returning it to 
 Nora with an apology for the interference her mind was at 
 variance with itself. To forward it now would be almost as un- 
 warrantable as taking it, and to return it to the writer meant a 
 humiliation to which her pride could no* easily be brought. 
 Under this mental strain she was rapidly becoming as morose as 
 Nora and the Colonel. 
 
 Left alone on the day of the picnic, her thoughts turned more 
 troublesomely than ever toward the letter, and before the day was 
 out she had come to a conclusion in regard to it. She would re- 
 turn it to the dresser in Nora's room, placing it not too conspic- 
 uously but laying it among other odds and ends that decorate a 
 young lady's boudoir, as if it might thereby discover itself more 
 gently to the owner. If on the find:ng of it by Nora its presence 
 created a disturbance she would candidly acknowledge her mis- 
 doing and as far as she might have power repair the injury she 
 
 had done. 
 
 When Nora returned to her chamber late that dull, rainy even- 
 ing her letter lay amongst her toilet articles. But unanswered 
 and half-answered letters often lay there, and that one was suffi- 
 ciently thrust aside not to attract special attention. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 ' ALL HONOKABLB MBN. 
 
 If was Siindav eveninc. The rain that had set in when the 
 picnic was closing had kept up with the exception of very slight 
 intervals ever since. It was a regular autumn down-pour that 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 91 
 
 .t was only one of their usual three-day rains and wo nj , 
 before morninB. But Nora whn k-,A „, j would stop 
 
 in what seemfd to her a de,erted h,u?i "^h" "?'"'"' ^'""'^>' 
 Father and Mother as k had cSmon ;Se dTc? 'red ZlT" 
 
 g;^is;-LiL-tirso^SSii^ 
 
 fulfilled No'a had ted ^o c'het' h'^er fin"" "? ^"'"^ to be 
 but h.r playing to.nighf.4's o^'the'^l '' ^^chln^eTsorTrd 
 her voice positively refused to raise a note qht V I ^ 
 compose her mind t'o read, and she went early to her room Nn^' 
 
 sleep As she stood at an eastern window wSchLZ - 
 
 occas bnal reflections fhrn.,„i, "'^^"^^^^ watcliing the moon's 
 
 t^;i:f- •"' ^^-^"' "o^-: ^X"ar°/at,r,e^i,-„^ 
 
 poSlSloranI ^STh7ou;"h' t^e-'ran'e'sl Sle" ^^r= °- 
 alst^SijT^ifrertth""^^ 
 
 an^ra^rsL^^th^'-for^oiitti tr; STour r ::^'' 
 s^^rerdrd^^oTfee'nitr;; s~€r '-?" 
 
 'moment. ShP h^^ „«» o.,«„;„„. ril^. . "^ "^'"^ '^'^ "^ore than a 
 
 I moment. She h^rl fyr,» c,,ff;^:«„* 
 
 r 
 
 IIUIII 
 
 psi=S;S:IiiSiE;K= 
 
92 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 some way involve her father, she was justified in seeking to know 
 what it was. If she went down to the parlor she could not remain 
 when her presence seemed undcsirajle. Her mother had reti-^d 
 early, and was no doubt sle'^ping the sleep of the just, for there was 
 nothing in a rainy day to disturb tne persistent equanimity of Mrs. 
 Toll's spirit. She had heard nothing about the returned letter 
 and had about come to the conclusion that it contained nothing 
 of great import. As to politics, she had got the Colonel over to her 
 way of thinking, at last, and she believed it would take more 
 years than she had labored for any outside influences to wm him 
 back again. Her sanguine temperament made her believe that 
 Our Candidate was going to be elected. How could it be other- 
 wise now that the Colonel was on the Reform side ? And finally, 
 she had read the secret of Our Candidate's interest in her step- 
 daughter, a consummation that had suggested itself to her mind 
 the very first day Our Candidate took dinner at the Colonel's. 
 
 All these tWngs were just as she would have them, and* what 
 wonder that she slept soundly now, though the Colonel sat up 
 later than usual these nights, and " didn't come lo bed to sleep 
 then," as she expressed it. 
 
 With the thought that if it was a matter that did not concern 
 her she could return to her room again, Nora put out her light 
 and went on tip-toe into the spare bedroom, which was located 
 directly over the parlor and between wh' -oms the pipe-hole 
 of the parlor stove communicated. W >Irs. Toll s happy 
 faculty for putting the fair side to London in every matter of house- 
 keeping she had made a strange device of fir cones that filled 
 and hung pendant from the pipe-hole, thus disguising in summer 
 time a gaping aperture in the ceiling. Beside this hole Nora 
 knelt and after a little effort was able to catch quite plainly the 
 words of the speakers and to recognize their voices. 
 
 " He is going 'round the country quietly boasting to his friends 
 that he has bought up the wliole Catholic Church, and that with 
 you and Father Innocent as the bell-wethers he can kraal the 
 whole flock," said a voice that Nora recognized as that of J. 
 Jones Pinkerton. j u i 
 
 "What proof have you that he has said so? Nora heard het| 
 father ask. , , , ^.,|, 
 
 "Why, Wesley here had it nearly in those words from x!ilil 
 Saunders, and we have a letter that verifies it," and Pinkerton 
 could be heard shuffling a h-^ndful of papers he had taken frora! 
 
 ' " Did" yo» hear Saunders say that ?" asked the Colonel in a tonej 
 that Nora heard and trembled at, for she knew his temper wail 
 rising. 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 93 
 
 in seeking to know 
 le could not remain 
 mother had reti'^d 
 lejust, for there was 
 equanimity of Mrs. 
 the returned letter 
 
 contained nothing 
 ; Colonel over to her 
 : would take more 
 iPuences to win him 
 de her ^elieve that 
 w could it be other- 
 side ? And finally, 
 nterest in her step- 
 d itself to her mind 
 
 at the Colonel's, 
 ve them, and* what 
 the Colonel sat up 
 )me '4,0 bed to sleep 
 
 lat did not concern 
 ra put out her light 
 I, which was located 
 /oms the pipe-hole 
 >Irs. Toll's hjppy 
 c-y matter of house- 
 fir cones that filled i 
 lisguising in summer | 
 side this hole Nora 
 ch quite plainly the | 
 • voices. 
 )astiiig to his friends I 
 lurch, and that with I 
 rs he can kraal the I 
 jnized as that of J.l 
 
 I?" Nora heard herl 
 
 )se words from Biill 
 5 it," and Pinkertonj 
 s he had taken froml 
 
 the Colonel in a tone! 
 :new his temper was! 
 
 tributed to him '' ^ ^ statement as you have at- 
 
 as.Stetr^-.!-i:r^^ 
 
 han'^d^dtrto'^hrcolonef ^^^^^'"^ '^'^'" '''' P^^^^ ^S- -^ 
 
 said^PinkTrtorh!"nHf 't"^' :"""« '' °"'^^' ^ ^ave no doubt." 
 ^am Fmktrton, hand.ng the letter opened ready to the Colonel's 
 
 The Colonel took it and read : 
 My Dkau Chore : 
 
 « otr :ad\S£°ve'do„e''' llll.ff^'^P' H^"' ■' «"PP°- ' -""^^ do 
 place you designatecl ^ '^^^ "" «<^diiional hundred at tl.e 
 
 wheSTsar^ ^«lrn>?r'Tll.7o[nn' T^ '""^ •"'"*' ^ '^ ^alkiug about 
 
 Yours in haste, T. G 
 
 ge„ui„e„eVsonhrdtl'r,"'"" '° ""•" '"' "■""" ""out .he 
 
 : " T ^ . 1 _. 
 
 
 las hi"spike''' ''w J°^'^"^""j°"es Pinkerton, cooll 
 IcatMiTtctors^f^N'orFlal '''^"°""^^ '''' ^^'^"^^' ^ "''•^" 
 
 y taking a seat 
 
.*<! 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE, 
 
 "And how?" asked the Colonel. 
 
 " Well, it would do no good to blazon it to everybody, because 
 he would deny it and it would simply be a question of veracity." 
 " In which he would have the advantage," said the Colonel, 
 
 sarcastically. . 
 
 " No, but we propose to depend fairly and honorably upon the 
 independence and intelligence of the Catholic electors of the 
 county, and we will issue a private circular which will go only 
 into the hands of Catholics. We have come to ask for your 
 signature, as one of the leading Catholics of the Riding, and a 
 man who has shown by his own independent course that he would 
 have every man vote according to the dictates of his own con- 
 science. The circular is not a party one. It will simply state 
 the facts and leave every elector to judge for himself. Here is 
 what we have drawn up : 
 
 PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL. 
 
 To the Free and Independent Catholic Electors of the North Riding of Flat: 
 It hnvinc been currently reported by certain persons that the Catholic 
 Electors of this Riding are being coerced and compelled to vote according 
 to a bargain and sule of their franchise entered into by certain persons of 
 prominence and authority among them, we, the undersigned, herebjr pro- 
 test against this scandal and outrage committed upon the free and intelli- 
 eent Catholic electors of North Flat and urge upon every sucli elector the 
 duty of repelling tlie slander by casting his vole independent of any 
 previous consideration and especially in condemnation of this libelous 
 report. 
 
 " We intend to put a copy of this in the hands of every elector 
 as he comes up to vote on Tuesday morning." continued Pinker- 
 ton. "You will see that it is aimed particularly at those who are 
 alleged to have sold the Catholic vote, and it is for you to say 
 whether you can afford to have ii go out without your name, 
 seeing that your name is prominently connected with the alleged 
 
 conspiracy." . . . • . • v 
 
 " I am not guilty," said the Colonel, rising from his chair as it 
 
 to emphasize the decU>ration. 
 
 " Then there can be nothing wrong in your saying so, by putting 
 
 your name to this circular; and it ought to be the first name in 
 
 order to give emphasis to the denial," suggested Pinkerton. 
 '* Read it again," said the Colonel. 
 
 Pinkerton read it. . ,, -ji 
 
 " It puts me under no obligation to change my own views, said 
 
 the Colonel. 
 
 "Not at all,'' said Pinkerton. " It is purely a prolcsL agauiiij 
 a scandal upon our faith and our church, and I believed it would 
 
 ■^ 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 95 
 
 rom his chair as if 
 
 my own views," said 
 
 Nora had made up her mind as she listened what she would do 
 and the scratching of her father's pen on the paper seemed to he^ 
 
 S Td JeTrne'dTo th"" ^"'y.^'-"^'^^ -- 'o --ke known^vh: 
 sne had Jearned to the man m whom she was interested She 
 dd not wait to learn whether this was the end of the plot bu^ 
 hastened qu.etly to her room and put on her wraps, musiig as sh^ 
 
 hpL^'^^V*^ this letter meant what they said it did? What did 
 iZ?L^^ 'P''r'"« °^ '^' P"°P'^ °f ^'' f^i'h as sheep ? Surely 
 been bought'? "J^r^^^''^^* 'he Father Superior's inffuence had 
 Deen bought? Or was he loo a schemer, trading on the sacred- 
 
 ece1" Could it'h ''""k,^"^ ^^'.!^'°" ^"^ °" ^fr fatte^'s S' 
 aTrt^f^h^'pomJ^^^r;:;'.'^^ "'^' •^■^ ^"^"^--^ - ^er were only 
 
 thini ' ^Ou'A^Vj'' '^'"'^"'^ °f ^'' chamber door a moment to 
 nis .nH M ""P'^^«'°"« are so apt to be determined by our feel- 
 ngs and Nora as she knelt on the floor and listened [o Pinker- 
 
 PinkeZ's' di^ '''''"m^"' ""^ ^'^" °^ ^he matter. Now that 
 with less bias ^'■''' P''^'"'" *'' •■'•^°^*^^ ^^e could think 
 
 wit^^tn?^"''^'*^ "°' '^'^^ °" 'he way home from the picnic that 
 
 h larees^ Ca h"^^^^^^^ "" '''^'' ^°^ ^'"^ ^e would pol 
 
 the largest Catholic Reform vote ever cast in the countv ? 
 
 Yes, but he meant nothing dishonest. There was no under 
 
 two mL"' He" dfd^'- . ""^^^"^ ^^'^ '"^ -oraAnXnTeof'the" 
 fromTt! " ™^''' '"^ ''"'' °^ his hope of advantage 
 
 These men came in the darkness of night to accuse him 
 . Su^T u^' *he letter in his own handwriting Her father 
 could hardly be deceived in that ^ 
 
 chulci and Ton uTf ^f''\ '""^ ^""'^'y °^ ^his scandal on the 
 »-iiurcn ana upon her father s honor. 
 
 h Ji'ff" .^ woman's reasoning faculties played hide-and-seek with 
 
 w h fverdiJt'fo'r f f""' ended.as arvoman's logic always d'es 
 Auu u /'^'^ her heart rather than her head. 
 Although what her father felt chiefly as another unjust reflec 
 ion on the motives of his political a n rose iri^Zra's mind" 
 to the proportions of a heinous offc. ^.ain.t'/hnf^Tl '^^^. 
 Z' |"^eicsls she had yet known, her Cl., :h and "her'father' she 
 could not believe Our Candidate guilty. Only one day remaini^ 
 
 
96 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 in which to act for or against him. She would go to him and tell 
 him what she had seen and heard, even at the risk of all the 
 suffering such a venture might entail on health, and the humilia- 
 tion of finding that she had helped a political trickster who cared 
 nothing for her. 
 
 While the Colonel was extending those common hospitalities 
 that seem due even to political enemies Nora, wrapped in a 
 light water-proof, was in the saddle and out upon the road.' She 
 understood horsemanship better than the average farmer's daugh- 
 ter, and she and " Prince," the Colonel's finest animal, understood 
 each other perfectly. He was Nora's noble pet and favorite, 
 and she had but to speak his name or lay her hand upon his 
 glossy neck and " Prince " seemed to realize her presence in 
 every nerve and fibre of his great strcng body. Taken from 
 •the stable at this unseemly hour, and with a silence not 
 characteristic of his fair rider's treatment of him, he may have 
 questioned, if horses do question, the cause and necessity of such 
 procedure, but he made no demur, and Nora had but to pat his 
 heavy mane affectionately to induce him to step as rapidly as 
 the darkness and the mud and his precious burden would allow. 
 
 Our Candidate had mentioned his intention to drive all night 
 from the south in order to be in " The Hollow " early the next 
 morning, and Nora, by taking the town-line, expected to meet 
 him somewhere on the road. 
 
 fl 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 DEEDS OF DARKNESS. 
 
 " This is very bad weather to get about," said Pinkerton as he 
 and his companions buttoned up their coats to go, "but you see 
 we have only to-morrow to settle this thing in, and we had to 
 hunt up these signatures to-day. I like to fight square, Colonel," 
 he continued with a show of frankness, " and if they beat us 
 Tuesday I shall believe it is because you went against us this 
 time," and with this effort at good-nature the chief political 
 schemer of North Flat and his two confederates went out into the 
 darkness again. 
 
 The Colonel sat thinking on what he had done and wondering 
 if there were anv such thing as virtue under the sun Could it 
 be possible that this attempt of his to assert his right of voting 
 according to the inclinations of his own mind had subjected him 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 97 
 
 to the suspicion of having entered into a base compact with the 
 other par y to sell h.s influence over other men foTuarr? Was 
 
 \Z%%l:itl'Lr'^''' 'I'' County reposed in h^ al 
 twenty years of cons, lentious effort to promote the well hpin.r ^f 
 he county ? He had felt their coldnes^s fr on e ti^e nas and 
 
 dr^'p do^tr td\°' '• \^"' ^'"'^'^ '- '»" ^- "e^ 
 tneir suspicion, for had he not a haunt hg memory of one dh 
 
 honest act that brought self condemnation\heneve^r he though; 
 
 of U? They knew o ,t, too; some of them. How many? Per 
 
 haps Swanson had circulated his threatened exposure private^ 
 
 in order to strengthen this new suspicion. That wofld serve 
 
 h,s purpose better than publishing it, for then it could have been 
 
 met and answered. Besides, there was the fact that he had been 
 
 But he had not done wrong in signing that paper," he mused- 
 there was no injustice to any one in that " musea, 
 
 In this way the Colond sat nursing his changing moods of con 
 . %^"^''k^7"'^T"""' '""gP^sl midnight%isH^^^^ 
 uitensified by the pdting rain upon the roof, for the sS^r^^had 
 
 Z:j'orC'Zr' ^"'^' ^^^^'-P-'^^ by'hea^y fhlX a'nl 
 The stornj had burst afresh just as Nora was nearing Muggins' 
 
 musrSk'shelter ''Vh' "''' f •'' '"^^ ^^^^ " seeme'd as ffT 
 „ffL^^. • ^'^e open driving shed under Muggins' Haii 
 
 offered its protecting roof without the necessity ofwE anv 
 
 T^- u^^ *°"'^ ''^' advantage of that unti t^he heavSof Jh^ 
 shower had passed, and she turned her horse's head toward it 
 when a flash of lightning showed her the way 
 JjiT J 'o Nora's surprise she found two saddled horses 
 already under the shed. Whose could .hey be? There were n' 
 lights m the hotel to indicate the recen' arriva of trlvde?s 
 
 5ora could n"n.'^^'' '" '"^ °^ ^'?^ "^^"^^^ ^^ ^^e little se emen T 
 JNora could not recognize the animals in the brief flashes of liJht 
 the heavens gave, and yet she knew the horses of the neighbor 
 hood as wdl as she knew the people. But these were stSe to 
 
 wJ i^ '^l^ "°^ ^''°"S '" '^^' «^^tion she was sure ^ 
 t.ii k u^ • P' ^^^ ^^^' •" 'he saddle and puzzled her wits to 
 tell how this journey upon which she had so hast ly set ou wis 
 likely to terminate. <^ho h^ar^ . ......ui-j __ "*''"'y ^*^^ om was 
 
 hall above and the door ae ,he top o'f the open stai^ stood 
 
98 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 f*""* 
 
 open. It was evident the riders of the two horses had gone up 
 there to wait the abatement of the storm. 
 
 Nora listened. It was the old and omnipresent theme, politics. 
 " Well," said one voice.after a yawn, accompanied by a further 
 noise which indicated that its owner had risen from the floor and 
 approached the window, " if this rain don't let up soon it'll be 
 too late to get to the * Holler ' before daylight and the old place'll 
 be too wet to burn after it's lighted." 
 
 " Oh, it'll go if it's ever started," said the second voice ; " it's 
 dryer'n an old corn crib; it's b'n built so long." 
 
 " Yes," returned the first speaker, " the opening o' the Sleepy 
 Hollow Hall was a big thing for the Protestant Mies o' Flat 
 County; I remember it well." 
 
 From this conversation Nora learned that there was a scheme 
 afoot to burn the Sleepy Hollow Orange Hall. The incendiaries 
 were no friends of Our Candidate it was evident from a further 
 remark from oiie of them. But who they were she could not dis- 
 cover from their broken guttural voices, though she had alighted 
 from her horse and noiselessly climbed the steps till as near the 
 door as she dared to get. 
 
 Coming back she again inspected the two horses as closely as she 
 could by the frequent but vivid flashes of light. They were not 
 known to her. But she put her hands upon them and made 
 certain that she could recognize them again if she should meet 
 them. Her touch caused one of the animals to whinny, and Nora 
 started, in fear that the presence of some one below would be 
 suspected. She sprang quickly into the saddle, prepared to leave 
 should the temporary lodgers in Muggins* Hall show a disposition 
 to come down. 
 
 They did not seem to be easily alarmed, however, and Nora's 
 previous suspicion that they were beguiling the hours with some- 
 thing to drmk was strengthened by their apparent carelessness. 
 The storm was abating nnd Nora was in a quandary as to what 
 course to pursue. Should she go by the way of the " Hollow " 
 and alarm some of the villagers, or should she take the shorter 
 road she had intended and leave the Hall to take care of itself.' 
 A strange presentiment that had oppressed her all the day seemed 
 to say that there was evil impending and ever since night-fall the 
 danger seemed to be increasing, for her consciousness of it was 
 intensified. If asked as to the propriety and wisdom of leaving 
 her home on such a night and in secret she would have been at a 
 loss to answer readily. If the mission of the men at her father's 
 house was no more than llicy had aiicged was there suif icnt in 
 it to warrant this midnight ride to meet Our Candidate? 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 99 
 
 rses had gone up 
 
 ond voice ; " it's 
 
 But her coming had disclosed another plot, evidently intended 
 
 was to be held he following evening, and this did much to i,... 
 press her with the belief that she was in some ProvTdential wav 
 intended to do just what she was doing ruvioentiai way 
 
 Kj'\r'^u°' lose time by going out of the way," said Nora to 
 herself; the conclusion of her brief deliberation '• I wHl keen 
 the town line as I intended and when I get beyond the vi lage I 
 will call at a house where I am not likely to be known and J, ve 
 he alarm about the hall burning. I can do that anS not t' ke 
 
 omeofl^^r.r'"^'''^"'.'.^ '" my journey by the kindne of 
 some ot the Hollow people. 
 
 While yet she was concluding her plan Nora had ridden out 
 into the rain again and pressed with what haste she could in "he 
 direction she intended to go. 
 
 She-had passed a considerable distance beyoud the "Hollow" 
 settlement before she began to pick out of the darkness a house 
 whose inmates would not be likdy to know her. First she tred 
 a small house near the roadside, the neglected sur oundinas of 
 which made It doubtful whether it were inhabited. VVthoutdis- 
 
 "aZ r Thi'r if K^ '° I''''' 'i' ^°°^ -d «'^- 't "heavv 
 wasTpened ^^ ^ ^°"^ ' grufT response, and later the door 
 
 who"L'* «'as quite another thing to make the sleepy individual 
 who answered the knock understand what was wanted And 
 when he did seem to comprehend he showed no disposition to 
 
 "The hall ain't nuthin' to me an' nobody's fool enough to try 
 
 to burn anything a night like t, •■ ' was his excuse. ^ ^ 
 
 1 hough Nora urged, it did nu avail anything. The ungallant 
 
 bil3'T'"'^ ''". ''■''''' l'"^^^^'^ story' and'doubted th^pos. 
 sibijity of a woman being abroad on horseback at such an hour 
 
 Nora°rnn';- " ""'f'r^ ^^y good purpose, and finally gave 
 Nora a positive rclusal to stir an inch himself on such a night 
 hn?,« ri Jf nothing for it but to try farther on. When another 
 
 Plot olH . "^ ^''" "^'T^'.^ ^"^ ^°^^'^ «^°^y of the incenS ry 
 plot told again, it was found that two young men of the familv 
 
 mi Zt'"°' "r ^^'" °^ ^''''^' ^'«""« Britons, a^d they' 
 were not long m volunteering to give the alarm. ^ 
 
 Noraur.'.H'n^'.'''",,''''^ ^""I'' '""'""' '° ^^^^' O"^ catastrophe, 
 
 rah hefn ,H " "■ ^?'%r '•'" ^'''''^^ '^^^'^"^^^ ^"d the drizzling 
 ram, her pathway only illumined by the nccasiona! fl.-'.Khes 
 
 T>ni 
 
 tne heavens. By bridges and cross-roads she was able to take 
 bearings ot the locality as she passed along. 
 
lUO 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 Peering into the darkncHS in expectation and eagerness and 
 thinking how she might first apprise Our Candidate of her |)res- 
 cnce and the occasion of it, she found herself after another hour's 
 solitary ride at the approach to a l)ridge that spanned tiie most 
 turbulent of the several small streams that watered the 
 country of North Flat. The heavy rains had added much to its 
 volume and its current and between the splatters ot her horse's 
 hoofs she could hear the gurgling of the waters while yet some 
 distance away. She drew the rein; an unnecessary reminder to 
 " Prince " that he must step gently on the structure. 
 
 At that moment out of the dense darkness a voice said '* Stop ! 
 You mustn't venture on the bridge." 
 
 For an instant Nora's heart stood still. But the last part of 
 the sentence seemed an assurance that protection, and not injury 
 was intended. 
 
 For a moment nobody spoke again, but the figure that had 
 cried " Stop ! " stepped in front of Nora's horse with the evident 
 intention of preventing her from disobeying the order. Nora 
 was conscious that there was another person present though he 
 Btood too much aside for her to distinguish even his outline. All 
 three seemed to be waiting for another flash of lightning to intro- 
 duce them to each other. They had not long to wait. It came, 
 and went so instantaneously that Nora's eyes could not pass 
 from one to the other in time for her to recognize the second 
 vnan on the read. But to her astonishment the man at her 
 horse's bridle proved to be John Swanson's hired man. She 
 knew him well, and could not be mistaken. 
 
 What was the meaning of this? No harm to her surely, for 
 they could never have expected to meet her there. The light 
 had been sufficient to betray the man's surprise, as she felt her 
 own, but whether it was sur[)rise that the rider should prove to 
 be Nora Toll, or simply that it should be any woman in such a 
 place at such an hour, Nora did not know. The figure at a dis- 
 tance moved farther away and now Nora kept her eyes intently 
 in that direction awaiting the next flash of lightning, for the 
 recognition of the fir^t figure had made her exceedingly anxious 
 to know if the other was Swanson himself. 
 
 It was evident she had startled ihem, for neither seemed ready 
 to speak, while all the time the figure farthest away was retreating. 
 Nora could hear his footsteps in the mud. She turned her horse 
 a step or two in that direction, determined to see by the next 
 flash of light who it was. But before " Prince " had advanced a 
 yard the lightning revealed ihe figure in retreat. It was Swan- 
 son, as near as she could tell from the man's size and dress. 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 101 
 
 le man 
 
 Nora turnt'd h^r horse toward the bridge again. 
 1 tell you you must not venture on the bridge." said the 
 
 hi,^Ln 1 "''* ^"u^ "^ "«'^' ^"-"^ ^^^ '^^' »he man had drawn 
 h.s cap mo.e upon h.s cyen and turned up the collar of his coat 
 J here was also an effort at an unnatural tone of voice 
 
 But the disguise had odme too late. Nora was positive that she 
 knew the man, and this made her cjuite sure that the re reat nK 
 figure was none other than John Swanson. But she was ?hor? 
 oughly frightened The unexpected voice out of the darknes 
 .dded to the exhaustion of the night's ride and its experiences 
 had been a great shock to her. and it was with the greafes diffi 
 culty she was able to keep in the saddle 
 
 hl.^L^of ^"^ °^ the lightning she had discovered also the bright 
 
 blades of a saw and an axe lying near where the men had inter- 
 
 rupted her progress. By a great effort she was able to ask wUh 
 
 some authority in her voice as she supposed : ' 
 
 What are you doing here to-night ? " 
 
 If Nora thought to convey the idea that she knew the man was 
 
 ■ v.".^*''^!'"'''" •"' ^<=«^"stomed place of abode at that time of 
 
 night, he did not seem to so understand her nervous intmoga- 
 
 ''Fixin' the bridge," he answered briefly. 
 Can t I cross on it } " asked Nora. 
 
 "Not to-night." 
 
 "But I must," said Nora. 
 _ "You'll most likely be drownded if you do. Can't tell how it 
 IS till we get some daylight," said the man ^ 
 
 Would It carry me, without the horse?" asked Nora, with an 
 
 UtZZ^V'-u''}\' T]^'' ''^' '•^^^ ^'"°""'«'l -'™°«^ to frenzy 
 .•n Ih f ?"'^'^°''? ^f^ ^^P^ ^° ^'« P"'-PO«« of driving all nigh 
 in order o be in the " Hollow " next morning he must surely be 
 nearly this far on his way, and without warning he and his car! 
 r'a?e would be plunged into the stream. 
 
 thJc /^°"'^"} '^^••' ^"S'^e'^ed the man. who it was very plain by 
 this time did not intend to talk any more than he could help 
 Nora, with an effort got down from the saddle and found her- 
 
 " Pr nrT'' ^.^ T '° ^'^' ^f ^''' ^^^^^ '^' ^eavy mud. Tying 
 nnnn thl K V "^^'"^ fastening she could find she ventured 
 flLh.!nf r K.^^* ^'T?^ ^^' "^^y ^" t^^ intervals between the 
 flashes of lightning by keeping her hands upon the rude railing 
 of the structure and Rf*>nninfr/^Qr»f.,n„ i„„* *ul -i._u. _. . "\","'B 
 to her weight would cause it to give way. ^ 
 
 The man she left behind stood watching her progress, so far as 
 
102 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 she knew. Neither of them had spoken further when Nora 
 essayed to cross without the horse. 
 
 She was getting on well, so well that now for the first time she 
 began to think of what she would do after she was across. Her 
 strength was fast failing her and it is doubtful if she could have 
 reached the nearest house beyond the bridge had that been her 
 decision. But she continued to grope ner way on. 
 
 As she reached the other side she heard the splash of horses' 
 hoofs. A conveyance of some sort was approaching It was 
 almost at the bridge. She must stop it. Springing forward she 
 uttered a faint, shrill cry of alarm and fell prostrate before the 
 approaching vehicle. 
 
 A flash of lightning had at the same moment revealed to us in 
 the carriage the bridge and the figure clutching its railing. The 
 cry and fall were distinct enough to awaken us to the fact that 
 something was amiss, and stopping our horses we climbed out 
 and went forward. The lightning soon showed us where the 
 woman had fallen and we lifted her up. 
 
 It required only the next flash of light to reveal to Our Candi- 
 date who she was. His surprise for a moment seemed to over- 
 power him. B It it was only for a moment. We lifted her into 
 the carriage and drove as rapidly as the darkness would permit 
 back to the nearest farm-house. 
 
 It stemed as if a great period of time elapsed before we got 
 admittance to the house and restoratives applied. 
 
 But as morning broke and the storm passed away with the 
 darkness, Nora awakened to consciousness. She was greatly ex- 
 hausted, but she insisted on speaking. With frequent pauses for 
 rest she explained to Our Candidate what had brought her out 
 upon the road in such a storm. The visit of Pinkerton and his 
 companions to her father's house and their charge that he had 
 boasted of having bought her father's influence and the influence 
 of the Father Superior ; of the incendiaries she had overheard in 
 Muggins' driving shed and of the meeting with Swanson and his 
 hired man at the bridge. 
 
 Here was a whole chain of villainies out of which Our Candi- 
 date must extricate himself, and if possible, turn the consequences 
 upon the heads of the inventors. Only a day remained in which 
 to do it, and to its accomplishment he bent all his energies. 
 
rther when Nora 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 "light comkth with the morning." 
 The first concern of Our Candidate, much as he was pressed 
 by matters pertaimng to the political contest he was wagingwas 
 to mform Col. Toll of the whereabouts and the condition of M, 
 daughter. Amid the absorbing concerns of these as hour, nf 
 the campaign this exhibition of Nor •-, imere.V in h ^ L • ^ 
 most unexpected form and with un^ . ionab t orcr ATvVt"no 
 word that had passed between them had ieen exprestivJ of a 
 feeling stronger than deep regard expressive of a 
 
 cas? in^ kw "^ri? '°""' ^'"^ "'^"^^ ^'''^ to consider well every 
 case n law and every project m business before committing 
 himself to It and when he entered upon any new underUkinL^f 
 was with the fixed conviction in his mind that he could win^ I 
 was this conviction that led him to seek anH ^mlr^t ,11 • 
 
 '? ^; ^f ^'f He had di^^cfed t eVam"a%nYn"peron" 
 notwithstanding the accredited abilities of the ^ocal maSaeers' 
 
 t" ct'anvthin^Tom^ Ih '''' ^"^^"^'"^ '^' '' their'hands o^de: 
 t act anything from their importance he had pulled his own 
 strings with wonderful sagacity. But about ?h love aS 
 there had been no mature deliberation. He had got into it he did 
 
 vices hrharhVen" ''' ^'fP^^-'T °f P°''t'^^' P'^"° -nd de- 
 vices he had been so completely absorbed that the moments of 
 
 elaxation given to companionship with Miss Toll drdTot seem 
 to be a part of the real life he was living. That they had been 
 to him more than some pleasing portions ?f hours whfch the bodv 
 
 pent in rest and sleep while the brain took a holiday in undirect- 
 ed fancies about politics and a thousand other thini -he could 
 
 ard ly realize. The events of last night were a revel! ion toTim 
 
 ter thatUltf '^ '" ^T'"^ '^''' ^' ^'°P ^"^ '^ink abou" a maN 
 er that in its serious form was entirely new to him. This was 
 impossible at a moment when he had so little time to th nk of 
 many th.ngs. How much indeed seemed to be pressing upon the 
 next thirty-six hours. At the end of that brief period he would 
 
 To'lhr.Sf v'"'"'^'"' °^ '^' '^'^''''^ ^^"didate in North Flat 
 To the ambitious man any contemplation of a step backward 
 brings a sense of the horrible with it. To be defL^ted J^.? o 
 a.rfcit ail nis political ambition and retire into seclusion"as far as 
 politics were concerned. With him it was an article of faTth that 
 popularity could not be warmed over. If he succeeded ' Oh 
 
 [103] ■ ' 
 
"M'l 
 
 104 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE, 
 
 It is defeat that is to be 
 
 well, success .always takes care of itself, 
 dreaded. 
 
 Swanson's presence at the bridge puzzled Our Candidate. 
 Nora's womanly instincts had prevented her from ever making 
 reference to the attentions Swanson had paid her. He was quite 
 as unaware that Pinkerton was impelled by stronger animosity 
 than political feeling, and therefore could have no conception of 
 plots deeper than political bitterness might engender. The pri- 
 vate circular was intended to work upon the religious prejudices 
 of his Catholic friends. If it had been successfully kept from all 
 eyes and ears but theirs as it was intended to be, many of them 
 would be led to mark their ballots against him on the morrow, 
 while outwardly they had no need to manifest other than the 
 utmost good will toward him. Evtii Col. Toll had been touched 
 in a sensitive spot else he would never have signed the circular. 
 Might not even he, though he had signed it only to prove his 
 own sincerity, be justified in marking his ballot against the man 
 who boasted that he had bought him ? A letter that Our Candi- 
 date was believed to have written had been produced, and it 
 would* not be at all unreasonable if Col. Toll confronted him 
 with this perfidy the moment they met. The burning of the 
 Orange Hall was a plot to prevent the Monday night meeting and 
 intensify the feeling of that society, already too strong, against 
 the party of Our Candidate. Altogether the prospect looked 
 dark for our side on the morning of the day preceding the polling 
 in North Flat, so dark that the brightest sunshine that ever suc- 
 ceeded a September storm could not altogether dispel the gloom 
 we felt. How many more plots of which we knew nothing 
 might also be laid ? 
 
 Swanson and his hired man at the Running Creek bridge, and 
 with tools ? They had not come to repair it. It was miles away 
 from Swanson's home, and he could know nothing of its condi- 
 tion. It was evident then they were there to destroy ft, and 
 Nora's assertion, impossible as it had seemed at first, that he in- 
 tended to drown Guilford, seemed really the only explanation. 
 
 Our Candidate had mac'.! no calculation for political ani- 
 mosities so strong as these, and it was in an incredulous spirit 
 that he joined with the men of the house where Nora was lodged 
 in an examination of the bridge. They found the two string- 
 pieces of the structure sawn almost through and the stakes that 
 stayed them on the shore drawn and then lightly replaced in the 
 muu again so as to give the sppesrance Oi ucing twiatcu out Oi 
 place by the moving timbers. The weight of a vehicle in the 
 center of the bridge would have broken the unsawn fraction of 
 
defeat that is to be 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 105 
 
 swift-running stream f'^gnients along the bank of the 
 
 dafe'f ™i„'r°"l7dirse"e™ To'tf^' '° 1™ '"'"- «"' Candi- 
 Col. Ton as speedn 'as"™ss M .""?J^„* •■ StLf ''^1"*= 
 moorings, and had nrobablv fnnn^ k ,. ^ S°"^ ^'■°™ his 
 
 the ala?m of Nora'rna?ems W. • ''^^"T °"'y '° ^^^ to 
 next nearest bridge some mi.., ' """'^diately set out for the 
 
 " the Hollo^v'• would dvenTn? ''l' ^° S° ^^^ ^^^ "^^X of 
 burn the hall had suc'ceeded aid ?h Z'' '° ^7 ^^'^ ^'^' '^ 
 fast as the state of the rraS^'iId p e mi "' '"''^ ^^'^ ^^>^ ^^ 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 SLEEPY HOLLOW WIDE AWAKE. 
 
 wast?L^°ng!''ir;is"o:^^^ T^^ ^^- ^^ 
 
 Flat County. To it thr/arTers LuX !" '^"^'-^^^ '^''^' '^ '" 
 many miles around, for it DossessedfKv ^^eij produce from 
 nicationwith the ouSde wS /nd ?hotah" v"^' of water commu- 
 stream to dignify with the n?m. f ^< •" "^^f "°* ""^'^ of a 
 
 valuable wherf raflwl l\ave not^ene^ra ted'' GraTf ""T "^ 
 had been erected at " The Fm-t? » i ^'^^'^ warehouses 
 
 opened in the Hollow and a b^v lim/^ ^'""' ''''''' ""^'^ 
 found active contentm^nt^n mov Hin.^ f community of artisans 
 rich agricultural dSct. B^a S and eUh?l"^7'°*^ °'^ 
 lis fifty miles away stretched ou^ Its Irml I ^'f ^"^ metropo- 
 way and then it was as if the tentacle o .n n^?' '^T.^ ^ '^^' 
 upon " The Forks " Tt U!!!.; *" octopus had fastened 
 
 dry rot from their foSnda Uons onTh^ Sles^^'^h"'"-.'""'' ,'"' " 
 the roof and were ready to ipXtttLV^:' ^.'^^^^^^ 
 "t p.ovocaaon Irom a summer zeohyr A blaci™ th . I 
 
106 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 of fashion, remained and cobbled and mended for the tew who 
 remained with them. The little church that stood upon a 
 picturesque knoll and was once the pride of the village in its coat 
 of yellow paint and a tin-covered spue that ghttered and scintil- 
 lated in the sun. grew duller and duller without, as each suc- 
 ceeding preacher seemed to grow duller and duller within.^^ If 
 Goldsmith had wanted inspiration for his Deserted Village he 
 could not have found a more fitting picture than this Auburn of 
 North Flat, which now bore the typical nickname of ' Sleepy 
 
 Hollow." ,. u, 1 .u 
 
 But a village was never more thoroughly awake than was 
 Sleepy Hollow when Our Candidate's carriage drove into it that 
 morning The people Nora had alarmed only reached the Hollow 
 in time to give a hand in extinguishing the flames. The incen- 
 diaries had beeti and gone again and it was only by some good 
 chance a villager abroad at that hour saw the blaze in its incipi- 
 ency and gave the alarm. A three days rain had made the 
 structure too wet to burn readily and the fire had been put out 
 with slight damage. The question which was agitating The 
 Hollow " when Our Candidate arrived was not the firing of the 
 Orange Hall so much as the disappearance of Nora Toll, the 
 loved and loveliest gtrl of North Flat. , . , , 
 
 When Col Toll awoke from the bitter reverie in which that 
 political trio composed of J. Jones Pinkerton, Johnson Wesley 
 and another had left him, his thoughts turned to his daughter. 
 Hers was the figure that always arose in tiis mind when he was 
 troubled ; hers the love that sustained his oft-tried faith in human 
 kind If all the world beside were false she could not be. 
 
 The light in her room had been put out. With a fathers 
 solicitude he paused at her door just to catch the assurance of 
 her well-being from her calm and measured breathing. 
 
 But he did not hear it. ,_■,•.. i. 
 
 When he had pressed the door a little open he did not hear it. 
 
 He opened it wider. 
 
 Still no sound of breathing. 
 
 He stepped gently in. ,., ,. 
 
 What ! Not there ? The bed undisturbed.? What did this 
 
 mean? . . ■, .1. v. . 
 
 He lighted a lamp and peered anxiously around the room, but 
 it disclosed nothing except that his daughter was gone. Had 
 she lefi; any int=mafion of where she had gone? He went to the 
 dressing table and ran his eye eagerly over its contents, xhere 
 was a sealed letter ; but it lay back upward and aside ; not in- 
 tended for immediate discovery, evidently. He picked it up and 
 read : 
 
he did not hear it. 
 
 1? What did this 
 
 OUR CANDIDATK. jq^ 
 
 Mh. John Swanso.v, • 
 
 MuaOINSVILLE, 
 
 • Ont. 
 ^hl.'had'X^e'd t!:Li%t"'' ha„d»ri,i„g, and knowing 
 
 delicate miLiveLm ii^le^.trrllT """'^' "= ""' '"^ 
 Mr. John Swanson : 
 
 your'^^Tei^vTsirrdlS'wilHn^rtraV/r ''''' ^^ the occasion of 
 savei^y father's'reputatrou I hope I hl^l^nTrP^^ 'l' ^^^^^ ^o 
 sidering the sacrifice. ^ "*^® "«' ^^^^ too long con- 
 
 » „ . HoNORA Toll. 
 
 him If I wll'e?j'haL%o?it'''m''' ^"^^l' ^^^ ^'^^^ "^^ marry 
 
 to him ? Or has sL repentTd th' '" "^'^ ^'I "^^ ^'^^ ^^"^ 
 fled from him?" repented the proffered sacrifice and 
 
 Thus questioning, he hastened to the room of lVfr= T^ii j 
 wakmg her told her what had happened I^ th*^^^^^^^ ^""^ 
 
 of fear as to what might have befallen Mn^. i /'' moments 
 
 knowledge of the letter- h7titTJ \ ^^^ confessed all her 
 
 bit as toShe whereabou'" ifl'^^r?^^^^^^^ 
 speculation on what might have t/k/nL u !"°'"ents of 
 
 about the premises and into several ^7 T^' '^' ^^''y '^^'^^ 
 places, the discovery that '"prinrr'- the mo,t improbable 
 
 does not require to be se down^n '^'^ "'"^'"ST, all this action 
 
 the pen and'the type are oosTow tT^' ^°' •^"^'^ °^*^««'°"« 
 for them When 0.,r rLS?/? ., imagination cannot wait 
 
 was alreadyThere but^oo 'tS T"^''^ Sleepy Holiow Col. Toll 
 
 rationally i'„ the^earch^f^h" da'ght^r™' H^etd""^? *° -^^'^ 
 the alarm as he came alone and n.^mhl ^^^ ^'^P^^ S^^en 
 
 The people to whom.hl jfJ • ^"l^"^' T"^ °"^ °" ^^^ search. 
 Hall incendiarres had rennrt^'"''.? I*"' f'""^ ^^°"* ^^e Orange 
 
 brought in oTthTfinlrof"'p,in e'-'^He";" ,'''"^'^^' ^'" 
 his way home, as much H/nr^fc»H • • • ^^^ leisurely making 
 
 about (he absence"? his affect onll" '^T'' '' ."^^^ ^^' ^^ "^her! 
 "Prince " without find^f M rToll'^on Iv ^"^ ''!.^''^^'"^ °^ 
 mystery, and the ingenuity of the Slein. H^n^"'^''^ L° ^^"P^" '''« 
 at work as it had nfver Sen on .- '^J^^""^ mind was actively 
 
 most diabolical p/obabill^^les as to h'e°whcre?bo"""V '""^ 
 
 giri. " '"e wnereabouis of the missing 
 
 g' 
 
 en 
 
 If the daily press of th 
 partisan 
 
 gaged 
 
 in 
 
 e country had not been quite 
 
 so actively 
 
 arguments for and again.,-,hr -^^Jrof 
 
108 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 the Government at the polls on the morrow North Flat might 
 have furnished the chief journalistic sensation of the day. But 
 the mysterious disappearance was explained during the day, 
 without scandal, and the incident was bereft of more than half its 
 interest ; so Miss Toll's plucky adventure went unrecounted in the 
 public press. Her friends may have been too modest to sound 
 her praise, and her enemies were too much chagrined at the 
 exposure of their plots to talk much of the distinguished part 
 she had played in the North Flat campaign. 
 
 But perhaps Our Candidate was in part to blame for this sud- 
 den indifference, for after proclaiming that Miss Toll was alive 
 and in safety he stifled further inquiry by saying that she learned 
 by chance of the unsafety of a bridge and knowing he would 
 have to cross it that night had come to apprise him of it. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE INCEKDIABY'S REVBLATION. 
 
 If the morning light had revealed nothing bv Pinkerton's 
 conspiracy the Colonel would probably have recei.ed Our Can- 
 didate with indifference. If his daughter's whereabouts had still 
 been in mystc-y he would have had little ear for anything else. 
 But when they had retired to a room at the Metropolitan Hotel 
 in Sleepy Hollow and Our Candidate had made him as fully 
 acquainted as he was himself with the two other plots, all the old 
 combativeness of the Colonel's nature returned and he was as 
 eager as Our Candidate to turn to the b£st possible account for 
 themselves these machinations of the enemy. 
 
 "The letter Pinkerton showed you was mine," said Our Can- 
 didate. " It was written to Chore in answer to one in which he 
 in a humorous way referred to having bought some sheep from a 
 Rover township man who was evidently pressed to meet his pay- 
 ments and whose good will we could gain by giving him a lift. I 
 answered him in the same good nature. As to Father Innocent, 
 I have in him nothing but the good will of a man of more liberal 
 views than are common to his church. As for yourself, Colonel, 
 you know better than I do why you are my friend in this contest, 
 instead of being one of my strongest foes." 
 
 "Has my daughter ever told you," said the Colonel, with 
 some apparent hesitation, "of Jo'^'^ c.^..„..^„'e Hk»Grr<»PohlP nt. 
 
 Kjrr c^tx!3\fit ij 
 
 
 tentions, and of— well, of his threats as to what he would do if 
 she did not marry him ? " 
 
OUR CANDTDATR. 
 
 109 
 
 the Colonel, with 
 lat he would do if 
 
 you cae?o heir" Th^'^''^"" "' '^' P°"^' ^'^ ^'^^ i' ^o you if 
 
 rtrrderouTp/ota?^^^^^^^^^ l^^''^''^ ^^^'^"g - 
 
 ment to ln«. if u?I the bridge But now we have not a mo- 
 
 lain and he'll h^nfT-^^^^^ to-morrow night. He's a cowardly v^- 
 
 stonl/'^U'Sur^Canldate "''i;f& ^^^"J^i^^ ^^^' °- 
 the interesting information t him "'"^ '"'"'^"^^ ^° ^^''^^^ 
 
 do fbout'''t'"hr h fi°'^°"-''""'*^ Our Candidate, "What can we 
 horsS under the shei'r'"^- F^^"" Nora's description of the 
 CaSmtown'verylta'bk InTthe'^L" "^'^ ^'^^^ ''^^ ^ 
 
 row mornina 1? ^''^ u""" '=""'^"'"' ^°°' ^^ the polls to-mor- 
 
 noon V/e s1;airtT' ?" '"'^^ '^'' constables at work before 
 
 the plot bvnninVf^'^^''" Some evidence of our innocence of 
 
 T^ff -l P""."?g the law m motion to find the euiltv oarties " 
 
 parT of fh^;'^ ""''^ ^^'^^ "^^^ ''^^'^^ ^-^" i" «ra? distrTc sis a 
 ron7erbnLTeHt\rf'^°"!^"rK^^ which people continue to 
 yet comSelv earlv n ^^^^ '° ^' ''""S"" ^'^^ough it was 
 Flat sSed to h.vi^h ^ "°'"'."S ^ 8°°*^ P°^tion of North 
 
 Le thoi^hTh ™,h"\'"M'' *^"'=='>'^^- M=n »ho'„ouwT,t 
 
i. 
 
 110 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 had their curiosity wonderfully stirred by this story of a fire in 
 The Hollow and a girl's midnight ride to give the alarm. 
 
 While Col. Toll was out seeking an ambassador to Swanson 
 and the junior counsel was gone in search of the Worthy Master 
 of the Sleepy Hollow Lodge, who would accompany him to town 
 and lay the charge of incendiarism, Our Candidate was deep in 
 the throes of the composition of a circular that would throw 
 consternation into the Pinkerton camp next morning, when there 
 came a rap at the door and our young friend, Jim Bigson, re- 
 sponded to the invitation to "come in." 
 
 Jim was among those who had heard that Sleepy Hollow was 
 for once • ide-awake, and he had come to see how it looked with 
 its eyes open, as well as to be present at the meeting in the even- 
 ing. In the few minutes he had been in the village he had 
 learned the story of the two men in the Mugginsville Hall who 
 in their garrulous dialogue had exposed their business to Nora. 
 He had also learned before leaving home that the two old drones 
 of the Mugginsville hive, Sammy Brown and " Jimmy the 
 Weaver,"the same whom the junior counsel had seen chumming on 
 the bench in the shadows of the Muggins House that afternoon 
 when he left Our Candidate doing supposed missionary work at 
 the Colonel's, were missing. Indeed, the landlord of the Muggins 
 House was seriously exercised at the mysterious disappearance 
 of these two worthies, who had become useful receptacles of 
 whisky paid for b> the travelers stopping to water their horses at 
 " the Corners," and who did the chores of the premises for their 
 board. They were a source of profit the loss of which con- 
 cerned him. They had gone off Sunday morning without ex- 
 plaining their mission and had not turned up since. Jim Bigson 
 l)ut two and two together as soon as he learned the story of the 
 two men overheard in Muggins' driving shed, and he had hunted 
 up Our Candidate to tell him of his suspicions, 
 
 Jim's detective services were at once enlisted and he was 
 about to join the Worthy Master of the L. O. L. in the trip to 
 town when our friend Zeke Moore arrived on the scene with the 
 startling intelligence that the leader of the Government, the most 
 distinguished politician in the country, was coming to address the 
 Sleepy Hollow meeting. 
 
 Incredible as the story was, and unreliable as was Zeke's infor- 
 mation generally, it took a marvelously strong hold upon Our 
 Candidate. The surprises of the past few hours had come so 
 thick and fast that a man exhausted by the labors of a long and 
 arduous campaign, irregular living and much loss of sleep, was 
 prepared to see the darkest side of every portentous cloud. 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. m 
 
 His faiih in the rumor was immnvTWo n«^ i 
 work to prepare himself fo the new emer.encv' %h"'' ''* *° 
 of having to meet and answer a speech from tl- p.-^,' T''''"' 
 would have disturbed stronger nefves th.n ?h PT ^'""«f" 
 
 live member for North Flaf Ld nff" ' ^' '^°^^^' ''''"'P^^- 
 port for the evening engagemenf 'nt^l" ""'l^ ?! '^''?^ '^"P" 
 office never knew such a' d^^riusiness s nce'the°l inTh^'^'^P'^ 
 
 association en ^/a^to the LeeL^ d" V*; 7rf '^ '' ^''"^ ^'' 
 
 ¥h^:e°;rs^:fel:tHc1tl^^^^ 
 
 visit SlL^y Hoa "na^^ '^^^'il . «- John to 
 
 could scar?^ have been^rn'o^corj^n^^i th'e'l?ttlT'ha:n^"^ 
 
 Sir John being heard ""''' "" ""^"'P' '° P'"™' 
 
 surmised rnrrprflv Tt,^ r- ! i '"^^"a'aries. Jim Bigson had 
 suriiiisea correctly. Ihe Catchemtown 1 verv keener hnH l«f *-,.,-, 
 
 pr^Te.^^:^.iTi--J'^trhSSS^ 
 
 K^y'-'p^r^'LTd'" •'= '^""^ °' '^= '»^" "-eyra'd'To'^n^rf: 
 
 When they were put under arrest Jimmy put on a defiant fron. 
 
 but Sammy showed signs of early wealcening. They we?e oS 
 
 .ionirrg™?'L,rh°Vbr„tVrrrd'Zv::;,'Lr'LTsr^- 
 
 ^^^"'"^'"'""aWe, and under .he1mp™sTo„ ttatrte punTh^ 
 
 r/made" de b'Tsl'S if ""H^r" T," '""" ^ ""'-■-• 
 
 onlv been anT.^m" L Aa- ,ht"'T°''' ''""T"' *"' "^ •'^"^ 
 tv,^' o 1 r '•"x'"^c , Lt-iai Juiiiry haa anteed-uo with him fnr 
 
 the sake of company, but the origij-i bargain had been m.H. 
 
 privately between Jimmy and Jos'h .kerSi Wh^ 'he prt- 
 
112 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 cipal's consideration was he could not say, but he had got $io, 
 and the understanding was that the burning must take place on 
 the night before the meeting. 
 
 The next move was to get the deposition officially taken and 
 use the incrimination of Pinkerton, taken from the court records, 
 at the meeting that night. The faintest suspicion that Pinkerton 
 was personally at the head of the plot for firing the Orange Hall 
 was a vein of gold for our party, and they determined to follow it 
 up with political avidity. As yet there was no knowledge that 
 any stronger motive than that of political animosity impelled 
 him, and among Our Candidate's allies there was no thought or 
 disposition to look deeper than that. To show even the probability 
 of his being guilty of such a resort just on the eve of the poll- 
 ing, when the time was too short for investigation or palliation 
 seemed a special interposition for the good of the Liberal cause 
 in North Flat, and it was not to be wondered at if the nature of 
 Sammy Brown's confession spread faster than the best wisdom 
 would have dictated. The result was that the local justice of the 
 peace learned that Pinkerton's name was involved and with that 
 partisan spirit which pervaded everything just at this time he 
 persisted in remanding the prisoners until after election day. 
 
 Armed with the verbal indictment, however, the prospects 
 were fair for a grand rout of the enemy that night at Sleepy 
 Hollow, and many of the loudest political spirits of Catchem- 
 town went out to see the fun. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE TUG OK WAR. 
 
 It was not yet sunset on that memorable day in North Flat 
 when the "free and independent " from all points of the compass 
 began to gather in " The Hollow." It was a wonderfully inter- 
 esting picture viewed from the hilltop, that gathering of people 
 in the enjoyment of full liberty to approve or condemn any of 
 the measures by which they were governed; each possessed of 
 equal right to mold and fashion the institutions of the state; none 
 under any political bondage but the limitations of their own intel- 
 ligence. 
 
 The capacity for free government is the best measure of a people's 
 intelligence. As in the individual, mental capacity is often buried 
 beneath the dull, inert matter of the physical nature, and is only 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 113 
 
 fordesDit/th. H '' ''r"''^ ''■'1"°'- dispensaries of the village 
 
 .t^^elSL^^^Ld'G^^^^^ -- -^-e in ^essin^ ^or p^r^S 
 
 to gmnT lirens^ ^''' ^^^^'^^ "P°" their power 
 
 nnlS rr • '^^' '^°^^' keepers were outwardly very neutral in 
 poht.ca] affairs, but there was nevertheless a pretty general under 
 
 I th?n"!v^'''' '^!1°^'"S °"^« °f both panies'th^trev could 
 stopped af"'"'^ ^'"''""^^ °^^"^g- '-d by the ta'vern it 
 
 frilA^"^ been evident at an early hour of the day that what our 
 friends originally intended should be a comparatively quS and 
 
 ZlZZTu^ aT?.^ ^°/ """^'"g ''"'■ ^i«^« "Pon some of^e more 
 amenable hard-shells of the river bottom, would turn out tTbe 
 
 DosSe t^^r'^'"^ °' the campaign. It' would have bee,^ im! 
 
 Secret and so ^1^' '"''5''°" °^ ^'^'"g "^ "»^^''"g ^"tirely a 
 secret, and so, with a profession of magnanimity and a show of 
 
 SatredJoSr-? thatwe did'not at aV^ent^rtainrwe 
 de? ^R?^ J,r J°'"^ T'^""S 'n the hail of the Orange Or- 
 
 der But our assumption of virtue did not go the length of nre- 
 ventingus from arranging that the news of -the meeting should 
 come to the ears of sufficient of our friends to mak^the gltherin^ 
 ''HoUow ••'''"'' '^""^^ '''' "^'"'•^^ Tory predominance of IK? 
 
 anHcTr..Z'?.rK^!7"^"^'-""'H -^-y' therefore, when they 
 
 i,^.. .,n v!!Kij;ciitjy una sent out a unvate aiiri rnn« 
 dential whisper to their friends that Sir John'^was going to be 
 present, and if they wanted a big treat they should be on hand! 
 
114 
 
 OUR CANDIDATK. 
 
 But their secret had not kept any better than ours, and how it 
 affected the followinii of both parties can be judged from the 
 description just given of the animated scene in Sleepy Hollow 
 the night before election day. 
 
 With varying degrees of anxiety, from Our Candidate down to 
 the most phlegmatic elector in North Flat, the assembled crowr* 
 stood waiting and watching each conveyance that drove into the 
 "Hollow." Out opponents were virtually in control of the hall, 
 although the meeting had been called by Our Candidate, and 
 they turned this to their own advantage by upon one pretext and 
 another keeping back our supporters when the door opened and 
 packing the house with their friends. 
 
 The limited capacity of the building was strained soon after 
 the doors were opened, and a noisy and perspiring crowd occu- 
 pying every seat, fretted and fumed because the speakers did not 
 come forward. At last, in the growing darkness, there came 
 noisily over the hilltop what seemed to be a whole train of vehi- 
 cles laden with re-enforrements for the meeting. The cry went up : 
 
 *' Here he comes !" 
 
 Our hearts sank within us at the contemplation of such an 
 addition to the oratorical and numerical strength of the enemy. 
 Could it be possible that Sir John was coming to " Sleepy Hol- 
 low," and escorted, too, by a train of his admiring followers from 
 Catchemtown .? The excitement drew a few whose curiosity was 
 unsubduable from the hall, but the majority held their seats 
 with patriotic devotion to their party and a pronounced objection 
 to having to listen to several hours' speechmaking standing upon 
 their feet. 
 
 As the train of vehicles drew nearer a ch.i ,a;e came over the 
 demonstrative crowd that had scattered itselt ti)e w hc'j length oi 
 the village street. There was less of shoutiiii^. r k. . ,i of eagt 
 interrogation passed along the line, betoker ,,■; , ,fje uucertainty. 
 
 As the procession drew nearer, it appeared to be led by that 
 nnaterialized nightmare of staid and respectable North Flat Con- 
 servatives, Doctor Goliath's "Traveling Show of Hands." 
 
 That was what it proved to be when it drew up in front of the 
 .Bee Kive Hotel, and the Doctor himself stepped upon the high 
 -.'a. of fi- driver and led in three rousing cheers for Our Candi- 
 v te 
 
 .rren our opj lents' joy was turned into mourning, while the 
 bic'fd in our veins coursed back again to all its accustomed cen- 
 ters Our Candidate felt better, and when the new arrivals had 
 adjoained to iiie bar-roou) and taken a drink (the bottle in the 
 wagon having been exhausted some distance back on the road), 
 
OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 115 
 
 " Sleepy Hoi- 
 
 they did not care much though the arch-Ieader of the Tories 
 oir J -n himself, should appear on the scene ' 
 
 i3ut the great Conservative statesman never came The hnn 
 
 Stiinh^'T'"'!,'"? '° ^' f '^^" '" S'^'^l'y Hollow hTd its bound," 
 St.l the ruse had worked well, and the " Hollow " people re "eUed 
 
 ^'iigrin^NoVt^^S" °^ '^^'"« ''^ largest meetin'^otth^Tc^r. 
 
 About this time the opinion was exr)ressed flnt tUn u^w 
 altogether too small for L numbers^e "". a d t wa's 'de idel 
 to hold the meeting out of doors. A heav^ lumber wacon wa 
 drawn upon the platform of the village weigh!scaks^nh,Tk: 
 were la.d across the wagon-box and a large barn lanlern wa 
 suspended upon a pole at a goodly distance' above tie sjeakjrs' 
 
 i,.M-°"'.J'"t li'V^ ^^'^ ^^^ perspiring crowd that had been 
 hodmg the hall for two weary hours in the interests of free 
 speech and party principles, discovered that prepara ons were 
 
 ZnT l"' \'r'''i',^r '^'' °»^^" ''»'^- '^'hey wire not namiabe 
 mood when they filed out. A warm climaie always disposes to 
 w.ckedness-lhe theological basis of eternal pun isSmen -and h 
 
 A man with a bad impediment in his speech was chosen to 
 introduce the speakers. The explanation was that he was ° 
 prominent citizen of the "Hollow." and in the trite nhraseo^Lv 
 of the political ring, "straddle the fence ''in his S He was 
 
 Snr'';n^'%'^'".°^/°'" '^°'' vvho gratified h is^ove " pre 
 ferment, and Our Candidate moved that he take the chair 
 
 He proceeded after due formalities to take the wagon, where as 
 many of the eaders as could well be accommodated had already 
 cumbed. 1 he orators of the night had got out their blue books 
 
 rame'rn'Zr '"^ P'^nced forebodingly 'at the suspended barn- 
 antern that was doing ,ts best, with the aid of a clouded moon 
 to Illuminate a 1 outdoors. The crowd had drawn closeTand 
 closer about the platform, and now the chairman somewhat 
 nervous in his exalted office, rose and said : somewhat 
 
 F-F-FlatT-l'r&Tel'gS;!'"''"^^^^ '^^^'°" °^ ^-'^ 
 
 uenL^tVlTfu'T ""^ 'K ^u^ occupants of the heated hall had 
 gently raised the tongue of the wagon, and just at this juncture 
 hey jerked it with a suddenness that threw the speaker aid those 
 The .JZh" '''' "'^°" "'^^'^'^ '■''' ^"'^ -"^ «-eral of them to 
 Then began a struggle ror the possession of the wagon out of 
 which grew a couple of personal encounters. The lar|e majority 
 
116 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 t^f 
 
 were favorable to the orderly proceeding of the meeting, and by 
 these the wagon was taken back to its place. But instead of 
 placing it on the platform again, it was left on the road, and cross- 
 stakes were driven through the wheels into the mud to hold it 
 fast. Then the meeting resumed. The hour was now late, and 
 all formalities were dispensed with. Our Candidate had the 
 platform. He had improved wonderfully in the rough-and-ready 
 requisites of a stump speaker since that day when he took the 
 platform at the nominating convention and thanked them with 
 courtly grace for choosing him as the Liberal standard-bearer. 
 The vulgar phraseology and rough-hewn oratory that took any 
 cut to a climax and applause, had both nettled and amused him, 
 and he had learned in some measure to adapt himself to the 
 capacities of his audience. But he never descended to what was 
 coarse or rude, atid by this means he continued to hold the re- 
 spect of many of his most conservative opponents, who embodied 
 about all of the early stock of British blue-blood that had not 
 been lost in the course of its transmission to new soil, and which 
 respected the refinements of the mother tongue the more where 
 it had survived its crude surroundings. 
 
 He was followed by the other Candidate, his very antithesis in 
 those characteristics just described. A back-township campaign 
 manipulator, he had secured the nomination by sheer assurance, 
 and he appeared at his very worst when he essayed public speak- 
 ing. After some stereotyped phrases of introduction he sank at 
 once to his natural level, from which neither the coolness of the 
 better element of his own party nor the jeers of the worst element 
 of ours could raise him. The greater the efforts made to practice 
 the better forms of speech and the quiet dignity of Our Candidate 
 the more painfully apparent became the diversity of the two men. 
 That intuition with which an audience quickly measures up a 
 speaker had drawn its gauge, and the ruder spirits began at once 
 to treat with the contempt of familiarity the man who had no 
 capabilities above themselves, except a capacity for sharp prac- 
 tice in the tricks of a campaign. Even J Jones Pinkerton, who 
 was on the platform with him, and who was much depressed by 
 the signal failure of his schemes of the previous night, felt more 
 keenly than he had ever done the inferiority of the man who had 
 worked himself into the party's candidacy. It was by no means 
 his admiration for this man, nor altogether his devot'on to party 
 that had impelled him to such infamous devices to defeat the 
 enemv in this camnaifirn. It was thp nfrconal hata onH rYm/^o^^ 
 he had laid up against Our Candidate, who had unconsciously 
 come between him and Nora Toll. He was even less pleased 
 
OUR CANDIDA'tn. 
 
 117 
 
 when his Candidate, incapable of discussing questions ot govern- 
 ment, undertook to defend Pinkerton's character against the 
 charge of attempted incendiarism. This report so freely cicu! 
 lated privately, Our Candidate had, with wh^t now seemed great 
 magnanimity, ignored; but a reference to it by Pinkerton's Can- 
 didate gave to the Doctor, who was to corae after him, and who 
 had been especially delegated to deal with that matter in the way 
 It deserved, the very opportunity he had longed for 
 
 The standing audience, that had shrunk or swollen in propor- 
 tion to the numbers that from time to time oscillated between 
 the village bar-rooms and the speakers' wagon, had become both 
 drunken and tired.and it required something of a local and personal 
 nature, such as the attempt to burn the Orange Hall, to interest 
 thera now in the speaking. 
 
 From the friendly staking of a few dollars or the betting of a 
 new hat on the results of to-morrow's polling the babel rose to 
 almost the proportions of a riot. Interruptions were frequent 
 and between these and the appeals of the chairman fo^ 
 order, much of the forty-five minutes allotted the other Candidate 
 was being taken up. It was plain that the speaker then on the 
 floor had put his foot m it, and as he had long since said all he had 
 to say on the issues of the campaign his best friends were anxious 
 to see hira sit down. 
 
 The Doctor was received with a commingled storm of cheers 
 yells and groans m which anything he attempted to say was enl 
 tirely lost. But he was an adept at brow-beating a rough meeting 
 had great nerve and plenty of physical endurance, and might 
 have been heard to say to one of his backers as he stepped for- 
 ward : Here goes for a two hours' talk if you want it " 
 
 The clamor by this time had grown to proportions that would 
 have made pandemonium blush for its quietude. But he planted 
 his heels firmly on the b0ards,drew out his watch.and announced 
 
 floor a!ufh^t°'"^ *° '^^ "^"^^^ ^^ ''^^ ^° ^^^ '^^^ ^^^ ^° ^°'^ ^^^ 
 
 '' Sit down ! " shouted somebody in the crowd 
 ' I won't sit down ! " shouted the Doctor. 
 
 " Shut up ! " said the crowd. 
 
 " I won't shut up ! " responded the Doctor. 
 Well, go ahead then ! " 
 
 And he went ahead, though amid interruptions coming thick 
 and tast^ But he worried the enemy and then abused them, until 
 most ui tne sensible and sober remnant left the ground in disgust 
 Another detachment was drawn off to see a personal encounter 
 in one of the bar-rooms, and then he invited his friends who re- 
 
118 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 mained to adjourn with him to the hall to complete some arrange- 
 ment of committees for the morrow. 
 
 This was a shameful abuse of privilege, but it succeeded; the 
 most frantic appeals and denunciations from Pinkerton, who was 
 next to have had the floor, did not avail to keep the gathering at 
 that late hour from breaking up. 
 
 While the peaceable and orderly citizen of North Flat, who had 
 come many miles to hear a fair and dispassionate statement of 
 public questions, climbed into their wagons and turned homeward, 
 musing on the low tone of their country's politics and vowing 
 that they would take no part in them in future, the managers and 
 runners of the party machine went not to their unvirtuous 
 couches, but scattered themselves over the Riding, each to watch 
 the other's schemes for bulldozing and mesmerizing the pliable 
 elector, and to do a little of it in their own behalf. 
 
 The more adolescent portions of the Traveling Show of Hands 
 took to their wagon again and drove out of the " Hollow " chant- 
 ing in chorus : 
 
 " The traitor's hand is on thy throat, 
 
 Ontario, Ontario I 
 Strike down that traitor with thy vote, 
 
 Ontario, Ontario ! 
 Avenge this outrage on the right , 
 Stand forth with helmet flashing bright, 
 'Tis for thy liberties we fight, 
 
 Ontario, Ontario \ 
 
 'Tis for thy liberties we fleht, 
 
 O 
 
 ntario. Ontario 1 " 
 
te some arrange- 
 
 5, each to watch 
 sing the pliable 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE TRIUMPH. 
 
 Not until that momentous occasion when the Angel Gabriel U 
 
 sea'^'aTd Jith'^/hrV^rJ'^"^ "P°" '^^ ^^"^ -d the'othe o lie 
 rn^^t 1-lT /k i '' °^-^" ^'"'"P^* summons the world to jude! 
 ment will there be a time when so many people are exerc sed 
 about the same matter as upon the morning of a general elec on 
 i: LS%:T'' '-'''' -P--tative goirnme^nt f^Jrut^anS 
 . The people of North -Flat were on the whole what is called «n 
 intelligent people and their interest in the affairs of gove nmen^ 
 would compare favorably with any rural constituency inTecZ 
 try. .The interest in this campaign had grown steadily since the 
 openmg of it. How much of this interest was due to^the bter 
 rfn3f/f'"°r 1^''''^'' ""''' ^"PP°^^d to existbetween tie Liberai 
 t^V^f^'J '''^ P''^"y ^"d intelligent daughter of Col ToUit 
 would be difficult to tell. It had certainly added its quota ind 
 
 Nor?h FlafLdT;""" °', P°\'^'" ^"'^'^ ^^^ wome'n SlL tf 
 mrth fiat, and he was a lonely man indeed who had neither 
 
 wife nor sweetheart, nor feminine friend who could induce him 
 
 to take sides for or against " Nora Toll's fellow." These feminin^ 
 
 Ee d?v1aw"'v'.f ' ''h '"^ °" ^'^ ^'^^ °^ g^"^^°"« admiraTion for 
 the city lawyer, who, young, clever, handsome and wealthy did 
 not think himself too good to pay court to acountry glT o?thev 
 might take sides with the spirit of envious disparagement that 
 
 oves to belittle another's good fortune ; for good fo?tunfids alwavs 
 thought to make what the world calls " a good match" ^ 
 
 But whatever the strength of these forces may have been thev 
 were all awake on the morning of election and the contagion of 
 excitement had spread from the head., of the househoM and the 
 young people even to the children. School boys on Ze roads de 
 whll'"? ^T'^'^ ^°'* '^' ^^"d'date their fathers favored • 
 Tw .f T^^K^' ^u'" ^ '"^^"^ ^^^^ 'hat morning as they real zed 
 that they had been born girls and could never have a vote the 
 women paused from their morning work to count the wagon folds 
 of vo ers that passed and wonder how each wagon load was going 
 to vote: the men who declared thev were "too busy to takfanf 
 j„ pohtica flopped their iiurses in the furrows and leaned 
 
 [119] 
 
120 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 
 The organization for "getting out the vote" had been very 
 complete on both sides and the party managers of every polling 
 sub-division had a wagon load or more of voters ready to march 
 in at the opening of the poll. With so many safeguards as the 
 Canadian election law throws around the elector and the ballot- 
 box there is little opportunity for embarrassing the voter or 
 changing his intentions after he has reached the polling-booth. 
 To spring upon him some unexpected issue affecting his personal 
 or religious prejudices at a moment when he had not the time 
 nor the opportunity to weigh the statements, and then to accom- 
 pany them with an air of important secrecy, was perhaps the most 
 effective scheme that could have been devised to demoralize our 
 Catholic friends,, and it was more than worthy the accredited 
 shrewdness of Pinkerton. Conscious, as.our managers were, that 
 no such rumor as his circular alleged was common in the coun- 
 ty, they had made no allusion to it at the meeting the night be- 
 fore, and the originator was left to felicitate himself on the 
 thought that at least one of his plans had not miscarried. It was 
 therefore interesting to observe the surprise that Pinkerton and 
 those in the plot with him experienced when they found posted 
 freely about the polling-booths that morning, on very conspicu- 
 ous bills, the following : 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 To the Catholic Electors of North Flat : 
 
 You are hereby warned against the false statements contained in a 
 circular which will be privately placed in your hands at the polls to-day. 
 The signatures thereto were obtained by false representations, and their 
 private circulation at this hour in the campaign is designedly with the 
 view of preventing their public contradiction with proof before the vote is 
 cast. 
 
 The poster was without signature, for any that could have been 
 obtained in the brief period after the plot had come to the knowl- 
 edge of Our Candidate would only have awakened prejudice. 
 The one advantage therefore that it had over the circular of J. 
 Jones Pinkerton was its open and public character. 
 
 During the lull of the afternoon when votes were coming in 
 slowly, and the division officers were relieving one another from 
 attendance within the polling place, it was quite in order to while 
 away the time by telling stories of this and former campaigns in 
 which the company had participated. Whisky had always been 
 a potent influence in a campaign, particularly when it could be 
 applied on election day or the night previous, and the practice of 
 " sitting up " with a doubtful voter lo prevent the other party 
 
had been very 
 of every polling 
 
 ready to march 
 ifeguards as the 
 ■ and the ballot- 
 g the voter or 
 e polling-booth, 
 ting his personal 
 id not the time 
 i then to accom- 
 perhaps the most 
 I demoralize our 
 
 the accredited 
 jagers were, that 
 on in the coun- 
 g the night be- 
 himself on the 
 carried. It was 
 
 Pinkerton and 
 ;y found posted 
 1 very conspicu- 
 
 ts contained in a 
 the polls to-day. 
 itations, and their 
 isignedly with the 
 ' before the vote is 
 
 could have been 
 me to the knowl- 
 ened prejudice. 
 ; circular of J. 
 !r. 
 
 were coming in 
 le another from 
 in order to while 
 er campaigns in 
 id always been 
 »en it could be 
 1 the practice of 
 the other party 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 121 
 
 fa"Z''„°l°j!i™ "'' '"^'"^'■'"' -* brinks during .he nigh. 
 
 We had not. 
 
 Zelfhtard us'tafcou't ''sittr^"? ^" l""' «°"°- ''^' -S^t, 
 
 the 'Marsh/ and he declareTh- ^ '°'"' ^'"°^' °^"^'" 
 with some of those mHd manie e^^ ""^. '^^^ "P ' 
 
 'he knew would be bouXTn or P' ?" MartyrviUe who 
 watched.' One of the bofs whn\°H h "!?'/'f '^ '^ '^^^ weren't 
 ment watched him and dr Jn.H ■ ^v"? ^^^^' '°"d announce- 
 him enjoying a gS^s of beer anH^ ' ^'''^^^'''' ^^^night to find 
 est Grits in Marfyrville ^'^^ ""''^ °"" ^^ ^^e staunch- 
 
 wilT'HrKs\^i';ree"^:;:f-^ <^-' of -i-hief i„ the 
 with their coat 'ol^rs^l'eTu;^nVthe1r°L^Vul!ed""""J°.•^ 
 T^o^esrfu : he h^dto^i'-^^ ^^ ?^ ^^^ ^^'^'3^^ -e 
 
 and .thought he ^^rz^:^.::^:^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Ze^l^'im^giSe^fSf :S characteristic story of 
 
 and anothef doubTfurvot Vhrha'd"b\t Teant^^^^^^^^ 
 moment was rushed in to cast his ballot ""^"''^"^ ^^ the last 
 
 •■ Rn/h 'I'" i""' <'"i=i°"." protested the scrutineer 
 
 .he r^?:r'„1„';:fer.ffic\'.:^^"""^" '" ^°' '° ^^ "^ "" 
 .. 1.1 he ought .0 have voted in No. lo " 
 
 no/.«.^1,l^h"/ca„''u„t■• '" """' "^ °"" ^"'™" '" «"" -d 
 ' "Better go back to No. 10 then." 
 ^^ hntne can't make that either now." 
 Mr. Deputy Returning Officer, I protest against this man's 
 
 ii ■ 
 
 i 
 
122 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 voting here," said the scrutineer. " It is evident the man has no 
 legitimate vote anywhere. The ruse won't work." 
 
 Exasperated at being beaten, they still make a show of sincer- 
 ity by rushing back to fheir conveyance and driving off like Jehu 
 iii the direction of the polling booth where it is claimed the fellow- 
 is registered, leaving behind them a string of imprecations and 
 unprescribed oaths. 
 
 The next polling sub-division was reached and the same trick 
 tried there, but while our friends disputed with him as to which 
 of the prescribed oaths should be taken in such a case, time was 
 called and the poll closed. 
 
 Then, everybody interested in the result who could do so, 
 turned his steps toward Catchemtown, the headquarters to which 
 all returns were to be sent as soon as the count was made. 
 
 Among the many deeply interested ones who had to wait im- 
 patiently at home, there were none more anxious than Nora Toll, 
 who was still suffering from her midnight adventure and confined 
 to the house. With how much interest she waited nobody but 
 herself realized. 
 
 The nervous tension of the hours that intervene between the 
 closing of the poll and the receipt of the last returns which tell 
 the story of success or defeat is tremendous. Then it is that 
 everybody thinks everybody else the most snail-paced in the 
 world. The tardiness of the telegraph is universally condemned 
 and ev(.rybody wonders why we do not go back to the days of 
 stage-coaches and foot-postmen. 
 
 Our Candidate was probably as composed as the average can- 
 didate all over the country is at that hour. He proposed to take 
 the matter philosophically. " The fight is over," he said by way 
 of pacification of the excited roomful of people who were dogging 
 him with inquiries, "and our anxiety can't make or mar a vote 
 now ; we may as well take it cool." 
 
 At the same time he was without anything but anxiety, as was 
 evidenced by the eagerness with which he opened every dispatch, 
 read it, and then handed to some one of his nearest lieutenants 
 to read to the crowd. The leports of gains and losses in the 
 cities, where the totals are made up quickly, fell indifferently on 
 his ears. What he wanted to know was how the vote had gone 
 in North Flat ; if the township of Africa had stood its ground ; if 
 the Rover Swamp crowd had been mesmerized ; if the emissaries 
 of the Government had corrupted the free and independent in 
 " Satan ville*" and wh^thftrthe "errvmandered township of TupTier 
 had gone heavily against him. 
 
 The reports came in just in that order calculated to tantalize 
 
 ^ 
 
t the man has no 
 
 show of sincer- 
 'ing off like Jehu 
 laimed the fellow 
 imprecations and 
 
 i the same trick 
 him as to which 
 a case, time was 
 
 ho could do so, 
 [uarters to which 
 ^as made, 
 had to wait im- 
 1 than Nora Toll, 
 ure and confined 
 ited nobody but 
 
 jne between the 
 sturns which tell 
 Then it is that 
 lail-paced in the 
 sally condemned 
 It to the days of 
 
 the average can- 
 proposed to take 
 ' he said by way 
 /ho were dogging 
 e or mar a vote 
 
 t anxiety, as was 
 d every dispatch, 
 arest lieutenants 
 nd losses in the 
 i indifferently on 
 e vote had gone 
 od its ground ; if 
 if the emissaries 
 I independent in 
 
 irnchin nf Tiinnpr 
 j_ _- — J.J — 
 
 lated to tantalize 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 123 
 
 
 from''''°rL JJlf ?°" important points were the last to be heard 
 .Tothe^sorn td tSr ^p^rts^in' "-?h? ""'r't^ °"f"- 
 
 shoi;i^„;t\t.erG';!? ,:,Z4^?:rp^Sdrr?%'h'er ttie 
 
 ?n- d-^eVr™ o .h^e"ca"°fo'r tZ c' "' --' '- --Mo*:;: 
 Rnf thL .■ u, ^. riP °' '"^ Canaanues over the wav 
 
 tampered wi^hAf? "Jr^' " "^'g^borhood had evidenliy been 
 S knocked out o?[t °"'-.7^t^hfulness the moral bottom had 
 
 other candidlr ti,-\k ""^ '^ '"""^ "P ^ ^ig majority for the 
 otner candidate This threw a coolness over our side of the street 
 and discouraged the boys who were ready to put the match to 
 their cotton wick torrhps tk» ^-,1 r 1 -^ ' matcn to 
 
 Traveling Show of H.nH; ,^'\^ ^°'^f"' "^^^ was carried to the 
 Rrocl c ^i^ Hands, that, in company with the Tootvillp 
 
 Brass Band was waiting on the border of the town unti the re 
 turns would warrant their triumphal entry, or comoe them tn 
 
 hived and a victory for our side was sure to need celebrating 
 This unexpected result in the Marsh Histr^rwas a dam«^' 
 sTd^of the's^ret""^^^ ''' P^^^^"^^ °^ undu^'jubfran^etT; 
 
 ofrc'erSiS'''' ^'T ^T""''^^'' ^"d that neighborhood 
 
 ouresUmate Sn"' ""'' *^°""? '° ^^^" ^°"^ ^^^"^"^ ^^"^^ than 
 
 heard from wh^h 7 '"^^'f ^ ^^T' ^"^ °"'y ""^i' Africa was 
 
 hope in the TorvVn "' ""n^" ' ''°"^' ^^'^^ '^ ^^^'^^^ ^ ^ay of 
 f. P^ '" :„^ ^°y bosom. The returns from Egvpt were the next 
 
 maSWth.^"! /^ ''fT^ °"'" '"^Jo^^y so 'rapidly and so 
 rmounfoVttt T ^^''^^}^'^}^o candidates now turned on the 
 amount of the Tory majority m the distant township of Tupper 
 
124 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 m 
 
 The uncertainty was torturing, the excitement was too intense for 
 expression. 
 
 In the Catchemtown telegraph office the pressure had become 
 so great that it was necessary to lock the doors to keep out the 
 impatient and excited crowd, so thpt the instrument might be 
 heard. 
 
 Amongst those who managed to get locked indoors was the 
 junior counsel. Among his accomplishments was a knowledge 
 of telegraphy, and it now served him a good turn. The office 
 was in the hands of the postmaster, a federal office-holder and 
 an opponent of Our Candidate. The wires were busy with mes- 
 sages from all parts of the country, and it was easy, where the 
 operators were so disposed, to hold back unfavorable news. Such 
 messages as they wished to make public were posted on the 
 lighted window. The enemy in Tupperville knew that the town- 
 ship had gone against them, and having learned the returns from 
 the rest of the riding, they conceived the idea of keeping back 
 their report until the night was too far advanced for our friends 
 to celebrate their victory. This scheme was consummated over 
 the wires, and the J. C. listening caught the tenor of it. 
 
 He immediately wrote a message to the Doctor, telling 
 him what was being done and advising that they proceed with 
 their celebration at once. Attracting the attention of one of our 
 friends outside, he pushed the message to him through the open- 
 ing in the night letter box, and a few minutes served to make its 
 nature understood outside. 
 
 Our Candidate's warning not to hurrah before they are out of 
 the woods is lost in the growing acclaim. The pent-up impa- 
 tience has broken all bounds. They press forward and taking 
 him up bodily they place him on the shoulders of two of his 
 most able-bodied supporters; the torches are already lighted, the 
 Traveling Show of Hands and the Tootville Brass Band has ar- 
 rived; a procession is formed and headed for the town park, 
 where a bonfire is already blazing, for the small boys of both 
 parties have all come over to our side and have added their tar- 
 barrels and their uproar to the rejoicing of the victors. There is 
 nothing so forgiving as the average small boy before his preju- 
 dices are fixed, and fun is a higher consideration than fame. 
 
 The last light in the enemy's headquarters has gone out and 
 most of the tired and vanquished warriors of a hard-fought cam- 
 paign have gone home to bury themselves out of hearing of the 
 din that proclaims their defeat. 
 
 A few, who bear disappointment with a better grace, perhaps 
 because they are less earnest in the fight, follow the crowd and 
 
 
too intense for 
 
 re had become 
 
 keep out the 
 nent might be 
 
 doors was the 
 s a knowledge 
 1, The office 
 ice-holder and 
 3usy with mes- 
 asy, where the 
 lie news. Such 
 )osted on the 
 that the town- 
 le returns from 
 keeping back 
 for our friends 
 summated over 
 of it. 
 
 Doctor, telling 
 ' proceed with 
 
 1 of one of our 
 3ugh the open- 
 red to make its 
 
 ley are out of 
 pent-up impa- 
 ard and taking 
 of two of his 
 dy lighted, the 
 IS Band has ar- 
 he town park, 
 [ boys of both 
 dded their tar- 
 tors. There is 
 jfore his preju- 
 han fame, 
 f3 gone out and 
 rd-fought cam- 
 hearing of the 
 
 grace, perhaps 
 the crowd and 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 125 
 
 listen to the speeches of self-gratulation indulged in by the victo- 
 rious party, * ' vii,io- 
 
 Once more a wagon-the long wagon of the Traveling Show of 
 Hands-does duty for a platform, and Our Candidate is called 
 on lor a speech. 
 
 At this moment a telegraph messenger boy is found struggling 
 to make his way through the crowd to the wagon. He has a 
 message for Our Candidate. The enemy has decided to do the 
 graceful thing. It brings full returns from Tupper township, 
 and It shows a great revulsion of political sentiment in the gerry- 
 mandered township. An intelligent constituency has condemned 
 an unstatesmanlike artifice, and Our Candidate is the member 
 lor North Flat by a majority of loo. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 THB 8E0RBT OCT, 
 
 The reaction that follows the nervous strain of a general election 
 campaign is depressing and all pervading. It might be expected that 
 those who win would want to talk about it. But they don't. Thev 
 seem to have concentrated all their remaining energy upon two 
 or three hours of cheering and crowing as soon as the returns 
 are in After that the body politic lapses into a comatose condi- 
 tion from which it gradually awakens in the course of a week or 
 ten days. 
 
 That Our Candidate found vitality enough to pursue his at- 
 tentions to Miss Toll is only another evidence of the energizing 
 influences of the tender passion. What he said to her was 
 mu ually satisfactory, and when they came to tell the Colonel, he 
 took them in his arms; and into his confidence also, regarding a 
 matter they had both been curious to learn about 
 
 Twenty years ago or thereabouts," said the Colonel, " the 
 people of Flat County did me the honor to make me Treasurer 
 ol the county. I was young and enthusiastic and I threw my- 
 self into everything that interested me with the same energy that 
 1 gave to the clearing of my bush farm. I was pronounced and 
 partisan in my politics and prepared to risk anything for the suc- 
 cess of the cause I espoused, and those who knew that took ad- 
 van,ag<? ol it. Tne county was thinly settled and DOor, and dol- 
 lars were not less potent then than they have always been in a 
 pohtical campaign. The most popular man in our party was a 
 
126 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 
 ^£, 
 
 man without means, and I was induced to take the funds of the 
 county to further his election. Our party was sure to be success- 
 ful at the polls they said,. and the money would be returned with- 
 out the county being a bit the wiser or a bit the poorer. 
 
 '* Well, our expectations were not realized. * Our Candidate * 
 was defeated ; and the men who devised and urged the dishonest 
 act were as poor as I. To trouble them or trust to their ingenui- 
 ty for meeting my loss was only to run great risk of exposure, 
 and before the time for auditing the books came around I had 
 confided to John Swanson the position I was in. had borrowed 
 the money of him and mortgaged my farm to secure its payment. 
 Though the party came into power later on, I have refused to 
 receive a dollar or ah appointment at their hands. I paid John 
 Swanson the sum I borrowed, with interest, and I was completely 
 free to join hands with you in this campaign 
 
 '' Now, if it seems well to you two yonng people that T 
 should be more to you than a political supporter you have my 
 blessing, and I promise to do what I can to secure Mrs. Toll's 
 vote and influence in favor of the new ticket." 
 
 " Well, since you gave in and voted to suit me the last time," 
 said Mrs. Toll, who had been listening unobserved by the Colo- 
 nel, to his recital of that humiliating mistake of an otherwise 
 sterling life and character, " I'll give in to you this time." 
 
 " Then that gives you a good working majority, Guilford," said 
 the Colonel. 
 
 " That makes the meeting unanimous," said our Candidate, as 
 he placed his arm around Nora's waist and declared the motion 
 carried with a kiss. 
 
 Another campaign has been fought since Our Candidate entered 
 political life, and his consistent course in Parliament has been 
 endorsed by his constituents with a largely increased majority. 
 The Local Member has risen to a place in the cabinet, and the 
 Traveling Show of Hands is particularly proud of him. Jim 
 Bigson has served an apprenticeship to public life as a member of 
 the municipal council of North Flat, and is the coming man for 
 the Local Legislature in one of the Electoral Districts of Flat 
 County. It is occasion for regret that I can not report any 
 change for the better in the circumstances of J. Jones Pinkerton. 
 His professional shingle still adorns an office door in Catchem- 
 town, the selfish interests of party having failed as yet to fiiid aiiy 
 place better suited to his peculiar talents. Zeke Moore is still 
 the credulous soul he always was, and the active harbinger of 
 rumors bad and good in the county of Flat. John Swanson went 
 into retirement on suggestions made to him the day of the Sleepy 
 
funds of the 
 to be success- 
 ■eturned with- 
 lorer. 
 
 ir Candidate' 
 the disr'onest 
 their ingenu:- 
 : of exposure, 
 around I had 
 had borrowed 
 e its payment. 
 ,ve refused to 
 
 I paid John 
 'as completely 
 
 eople that J 
 you have my 
 re Mrs. Toll's 
 
 the last time," 
 by the Colo- 
 an otherwise 
 
 time." 
 
 Juilford," said 
 
 Candidate, as 
 id the motion 
 
 didate entered 
 lent has been 
 ised majority, 
 binet, and the 
 of him. Jim 
 IS a member of 
 )ming man for 
 stricts of Flat 
 ot report any 
 fies Pinkerton. 
 r in Catchem- 
 ^et to find any 
 Moore is still 
 : harbinger of 
 Swanson went 
 of the Sleepy 
 
 OUR CANDIDATE. 
 
 127 
 
 Hollow meetmg. and h.s mterest in politics has never revived 
 He probably considers that he and the Colonel are even now and 
 they will keep one another's secrets until they both ko over to the 
 great majority. b u ci lu mc 
 
 *oi,^°"'/l '^^ ^-^PPy "^'^^ °^ ^^"^ Member for North Flat, has 
 taken a Liberal view of religion as well as politics, and by her 
 
 Z"XF rL'*';' \y^''u^^ Protestant has added one more link to 
 the chain that will yet bind all sects in the one grand brotherhood 
 I, ^^V,^''^"'ty- But m spite of all the materialism of her aee 
 she still has respect to that unexplained influence which led her 
 mother, in spite of moral rectitude, to intercept her letter to 
 John Swanson, and saved her the humiliation of offering herself 
 to nim m marriage.