devil is he?" said one of them to another, in a
whisper, as they ran up the stairs.

"I'm sure I don't know. Musher promised to have him ready."

"And I sent Ele up to get here before we did," replied his friend, in the
same hurried whisper, his fat nose glistening in the hall-light.

When they reached Mr. Newt's room they found him lying upon a sofa, while
Musher and the Honorable B.J. Ele were trying to get him up.

"D----n it! stand up, can't you?" cried Mr. Ele.

"No, I can't," replied Abel, with a half-humorous maudlin smile.

At the same moment the impetuous roar of the crowd in the street stole in
through the closed windows.

"Newt! Newt! Newt!"

"What in ---- shall we do?" gasped Mr. Enos Slugby, walking rapidly up
and down the room.

"Who let him get drunk?" demanded General Belch, angrily.

Nobody answered.

"Newt! Newt! Newt!" surged in from the street.

"Thunder and devils, there's nothing for it but to prop him up on the
balcony!" said General Belch. "Come now, heave to, every body, and stick
him on his pins."

Abel looked sleepily round, with his eyes half closed and his under lip
hanging.

"'Tain't no use," said he, thickly; "'tain't no use."

And he leered and laughed.

The perspiring and indignant politicians grasped him--Slugby and William
Condor under the arms, Belch on one side, and Ele ready to help any
where. They raised their friend to his feet, while his head rolled slowly
round from one side to the other, with a maudlin grin.

"'Tain't no use," he said.

Indeed, when they had him fairly on his feet nothing further seemed to be
possible. They were all holding him and looking very angry, while they
heard the loud and imperative--"Newt! Newt! Newt!" accompanied with
unequivocal signs of impatience in an occasional stone or chip that
rattled against the blinds.

In the midst of it all the form of the drunken man slipped back upon the
sofa, and sitting there leaning on his hands, which rested on his knees,
and with his head heavily hanging forward, he lifted his forehead, and,
seeing the utterly discomfited group standing perplexed before him, he
said, with a foolish smile,

"Let's all sit down."

There was a moment of hopeless and helpless inaction. Then suddenly
General Belch laid his hands upon the sofa on which Abel was lying, and
moved it toward the window.

"Now," cried he to the others, "open the blinds, and we'll make an end of
it."

Enos Slugby raised the wind