h sights, and have me right by him
to tell him the reason on't--to tell him that two thousand dollars lent
on easy interest would turn every one of them worthless, decayin' pieces
of property into beautiful, flourishin', prosperous homes, he'd probable
feel different about passin' the bill from what he duz now--

[Illustration: "If Uncle Sam could have me right by him to tell him
the reason."]

"When I told him that most generally out behind the barn, and under the
apple trees and gambrul ruff, wuz crouchin' the monster that had sapped
the life out of the hum--the bloated, misshapen form of a mortgage at
six per cent, and that old, insatiable monster had devoured and drinked
down every cent of the earnin's that the hull family could bring to
appease it with--

"It would open its snappin' old jaws and swaller 'em all down, and then
set down refreshed but unappeased to wait for the next earnin's to be
brung him.

"Wall, now, if they could pay off that mortgage, and git rid of it, they
could walk over its prostrate form into prosperity; they could afford to
lighten up the bare poverty of a country farm, so repellin' to the
young, with some touches of brightness. Books, music, good horses,
carriages would preach louder lessons of content to the children than
any they would hear from their pa's or ma's or ministers.

"They would love their hums--would make them yield, instead of ruin and
depressin' influences, a good income to themselves, and good tax-payin'
property to help Uncle Sam--

"Decrease vice, increase virtue--lead away from prisons and almshousen,
lead toward meetin'-housen, and the halls of justice, mebby. For in the
highest places of trust and honor in the United States to-day is to be
found the sons and daughters of country homes."

Here, at jest this juncture, my umbrell fell out of my hand, and it
brung my eyes down to earth agin; for some time, entirely onbeknown to
me, I had been a-lookin' up into the encirclin' heavens, and a-soarin'
round there in oratory.

But as my eyes fell onto the Governor, I noticed the extreme weariness
and mute agony on his liniment; he picked up my umbrell and handed it to
me, and sez he, a-speakin' fast and agitated, as if in fear of sunthin'
or ruther:--

"Your remarks are truly eloquent, and I believe every word on 'em; but,"
sez he, "I have an engagement of nearly life and death; I must leave
you," and he sot off nearly on a run.

And I spread my umbrell and walk