birds, he
combined facility and earnestness in almost mercurial relations to each
other, and the Judge saw that these must constitute a remarkable jury
lawyer.

His face was shaven smooth; his throat and chin showed an early tendency
to flesh; the poise of his head and thoughtful darting of his eyes and
slight aqualinity of his nose indicated one who loved mental action and
competition, yet drew that love from a great, healthy body that had to
be watched lest it relapse into indolence. The loss of his wife so soon
after marriage had been followed by nearly complete indifference to
women, and he had made politics his only consolation and mistress,
harnessing her like a young mare with his old roadster of the law, and
driving them together in the slender confines of his principality, and
then locking the law up among his office students to drive politics into
the national arena at Washington.

"You require to be very neighborly, Clayton, in a small bailiwick like
this?" the Judge inquired, as they strolled along the square in the soft
evening.

"We have the best people in the world in Delaware, friend Custis: few
traders, little law, scarcely any violence, and they are easy to please;
but it is a high offence in this state not to be what is called 'a
clever man.' You must stop, whatever be your errand, and smile and
inquire of every man at his gate for every individual member of his
household. The time lost in such kind, trifling intercourse is in the
aggregate immense. But, Goy! I do love these people."

"It seems to me that you encourage that exaction."

"Well, I do. As an electioneerer, I can get away with any of 'em. Goy!
Why, Jim Whitecar, Lord bless your dear soul!"--this addressed to a
thick-set, sandy, uncertain-looking man who was about retreating into
the Capitol Tavern--"what brings you to town, Jim?"

"It's a free country, I reckon," exclaimed the suspicious-looking man.

"Goy! that's so, Jimmy. We're all glad to see you in Dover behaving of
yourself, Jim. Now don't give me any trouble this year, friend Jimmy.
Behave yourself, and be an honor to your good parents that I think so
much of. Oblige me, now!"

As they turned to cross the middle of the square, Clayton said:

"I'll have him at that whipping-post, hugging of it, one of these days."

"What is he?"

"A kidnapper down here in Sockum, and a bad one: a dangerous fellow,
too. I hear he says if I ever push him to the extremity of his
co-laborer