hed his cigar toward the First National, and then pointed it
at his own door, but this bit of pantomime only renewed the mirth of the
assemblage. It seemed to be the impression that he was trying to
advertise his bank, in the fashion of a "demonstrator" in a shop-window.
The disorder increased. Some one yelled:--

"What are you paying for Sycamore bonds?"

This was followed by an ominous turning and shifting. Amzi withdrew,
closed and locked the bank doors, and showed his scorn of his
calumniators by reversing with deliberation the tin card so that it
announced "Bank Shut."

Amzi, his dignity ruffled by the reception accorded him, had retired to
his private room when a familiar knock sounded on the Franklin Street
door and he turned the latch to admit Phil.

"You--! what you doing down here? What right have you to be running the
streets on a day like this?" he blurted, his eyes bulging wrathfully.

"Oh, chuck it, Amy! This is the best show we've had since the calliope
blew up and killed the elephant in the circus when I was seven years
old. I've been to the meeting. The Honorable Alec delivered a noble
oration; he told them that everybody, including you and daddy, is
crooked; he's the only honest man. It was the supreme and ultimate
lim_ite_!"

"Want to burn me in effigy? Call me a horned plutocrat?"

"Oh, he didn't mention you, or daddy either, by name; just hinted that
you were both trying to rob the Sycamore bondholders."

Amzi put his feet on a chair, settled his hat comfortably on the back of
his head, and chewed his cigar meditatively.

"Thunder! You'd better keep away from indignation meetings where Alec's
going to speak. You're likely to get shot."

"Not I, sir. I called him a coward, right there in the meeting. A most
unladylike proceeding; indeed, it was, Amy.

"When rose the maid upon a chair,
Some called her false: none named her fair:
Nathless she saw nor sneer nor frown,
But 'C-o-w-a-r-d' flung her challenge down."

Amzi ignored her couplets--Phil's impromptu verses always embarrassed
him--and demanded the particulars. He chuckled as she described the
meeting. He cross-examined her to be sure that she omitted nothing. Her
report of his brother-in-law's tirade gave him the greatest delight. As
they talked, they heard plainly the commotion in the streets.

"I like the way you take things," said Phil. "The town's gone crazy, and
there's a mob in front of your little toy bank, but you're no