py face growing
as serious as it could ever become.

"Can't he wiggle out?" asked Uncle John.

"Out of what?"

"His trouble."

"It seems not. Listen--"

"Oh, tell us about it, lassie," said the Major. "If I judge right
there's some sixty pages in that epistle. Don't bother to read it
again."

"But every word is important," declared Patsy, turning the letter over,
"--except the last page," with a swift flush.

Uncle John laughed. His shrewd old eyes saw everything.

"Then read us the last page, my dear."

"I'll tell you about it," said Patsy, quickly. "It's this way, you see.
Kenneth has gone into politics!"

"More power to his elbow!" exclaimed the Major.

"I can't imagine it in Kenneth," said Uncle John, soberly. "What's he in
for?"

"For--for--let's see. Oh, here it is. For member of the House of
Representatives from the Eighth District."

"He's flying high, for a fledgling," observed the Major. "But Kenneth's
a bright lad and a big gun in his county. He'll win, hands down."

Patsy shook her head.

"He's afraid not," she said, "and it's worrying him to death. He doesn't
like to be beaten, and that's what's troubling him."

Uncle John pushed back his chair.

"Poor boy!" he said. "What ever induced him to attempt such a thing?"

"He wanted to defeat a bad man who now represents Kenneth's district,"
explained Patsy, whose wise little head was full of her friend's
difficulties; "and--"

"And the bad man objects to the idea and won't be defeated," added the
Major. "It's a way these bad men have."

Uncle John was looking very serious indeed, and Patsy regarded him
gratefully. Her father never would be serious where Kenneth was
concerned. Perhaps in his heart the grizzled old Major was a bit jealous
of the boy.

"I think," said the girl, "that Mr. Watson got Ken into politics, for he
surely wouldn't have undertaken such a thing himself. And, now he's in,
he finds he's doomed to defeat; and it's breaking his heart, Uncle
John."

The little man nodded silently. His chubby face was for once destitute
of a smile. That meant a good deal with Uncle John, and Patsy knew she
had interested him in Kenneth's troubles.

"Once," said the Major, from behind the morning paper, "I was in
politics, meself. I ran for coroner an' got two whole votes--me own an'
the undertaker's. It's because the public's so indiscriminating that
I've not run for anything since--except th' street-car."

"But it's a big game,"