n a smile, and
motioned John to come closer. Then he put his head forward, and
whispered confidentially:--

"What'd you ruther do or go a-fishing?"

"But why?" persisted the young man.

"Widder who?" returned Watts, grinning and putting his hand to his
ear.

When John repeated his question the third time, McHurdie said:--

"I know a way you can get rich mighty quick, sonny." And when the boy
refused to "bite," Watts went on: "If any one asks you what Watts
McHurdie thinks about politics so long as he is in the harness
business, you just take the fellow upstairs, and pull down the
curtain, and lock the door, and tell him you don't know, and not to
tell a living soul."

With Bob Hendricks, John had little better success in solving the
mystery of the rise of Bemis. "Father says he's effective, and he
would rather have him for him than against him," was the extent of
Bob's explanation.

Ward's answer was more to the point. He said: "Lige Bemis is a living
example of the power of soft soap in politics. We know--every man in
this county knows--that Lige Bemis was a horse thief before the war,
and that he was a cattle thief and a camp-follower during the war; and
after the war we know what he was--he and the woman he took up with.
Yet here he has been a member of the legislature and is beginning to
be a figure in state politics,--at least the one to whom the governor
and all the fellows write when they want information about this
county. Why? I'll tell you: because he's committed every crime and
can't denounce one and goes about the country extenuating things and
oiling people up with his palaver. Now he says he is a lawyer--yes,
sir, actually claims to be a lawyer, and brought his diploma into
court two years ago, and they accepted it. But I know, and the court
knows, and the bar knows it was forged; it belonged to his dead
brother back in Hornellsville, New York. But Hendricks downstairs said
we needed Lige in the county-seat case, so he is a member of the bar,
taking one hundred per cent for collecting accounts for Eastern
people, and giving the country a black eye. A man told me he was on
over fifty notes for people at the bank; he signs with every one, and
Hendricks never bothers him. He managed to get into all the lodges,
right after the war when they were reorganized, and he sits up with
the sick, and is pall-bearer--regular professional pall-bearer, and I
don't doubt gets a commission for selling coffins from