"

"No? Well, maybe he doesn't now, but he will later on when he takes
his seat in the Senate. If he isn't wise enough to play around with
the rest of the Senators he won't get any bills passed, especially any
bill carrying an appropriation or of any other particular importance."

"What!" ejaculated the planter's son. "Do you mean to say that if
father won't do what the other Senators want him to do they will
combine against him and destroy his usefulness, make him powerless--a
failure?"

The Congressman smiled patronizingly on the youth. "Why, of course
they will. That's politics, practical politics, the only kind that's
known in Washington. You see--"

"But the leaders of the great parties!" cried the young plantation
manager, in amazement. "Why don't they prevent this?"

"Because they invented the system and because political party
differences don't amount to a whole lot much of the time in
Washington. The politicians do most of their criticizing of the other
party away from Washington, where the voters can hear them. But when
circumstances sometimes force a man to rise to assail the other side
in Congress he afterward apologizes in secret for his words. Or,
sometimes he apologizes beforehand, saying: 'I've got to hand out some
hot shot to you fellows just to please a crowd of sovereign voters
from my district who have come up to Washington to see me perform. So,
of course, I've got to make a showing; Don't mind what I say. You know
I don't mean it, but the old fogies will go back home and tell their
neighbors what a rip-snortin' reformer I be.'"

"Is that the way you represent your district; Norton?" asked Planter
Langdon, who at this juncture entered the room.

"No, no, Mr. Langdon--I should say Senator now, I suppose. I was
merely telling Randolph how some legislators conduct themselves."

The Senator-elect paused momentarily, gazing at the Congressman, who,
dark-visaged, tall, black-haired, broad-shouldered and athletic, was
visibly uneasy at having his conversation with Randolph overheard by
the father.

"No doubt it won't be all plain sailing in Washington for an
old-fashioned man like me, but I believe in the American people and
the men they send to Congress," slowly spoke the planter. "There's
Senator Stevens, for instance. He has always stood for the rights of
the people. I've read all his speeches. Just why he brought about my
election it is hard to tell, for I've been a planter all my life,
exc