hed lawn, amid the heaps of huge limestone blocks, his eyes upon
the looming facade of the west front. He walked the echoing rotunda
with a timid air; and the beautiful soaring vault was so majestic in
his eyes, he wondered if Washington could be finer. There were a few
other greenhorns, like himself, looking the building over with the same
minute scrutiny. He entered all of the rooms into which it was possible
to penetrate, and at last into the library, a cheerful, rectangular
room, into which the sun streamed plenteously.

There was hardly any one in either the Senate or the Representative
Halls except farmer-like groups of people, sometimes a family group of
four or five, including the grandmother or grandfather. They were
mainly in rough best suits of gray, or ostentatiously striped
cassimere. The young men wore wide hats, pushed back, in some cases, to
display a smooth, curling wave of hair, carefully combed down over
their foreheads. He was able to catalogue them by reference to his old
companions, Ed Blackler, Shep Watson, Sever Anderson, and others.

Soon the crowds thickened, and groups of men entered, talking and
laughing loudly. They were wholly at their ease, being plainly old and
experienced members. They greeted each other with boisterous cries and
powerful handshaking.

"Hello, Stineberg, I hoped you'd git snowed under. Back again, eh?"

"Well, I'll be damned! Aint your county got any more sense than to send
such a specimen as you back? Why weren't you around to the caucus?"

Bradley stood around awkwardly alone, not knowing just what to do.
Perhaps some of these men would be glad to see him if they knew him,
but he could not think of going to introduce himself. Being new in
politics, there was not a man there whose face he recognized. The few
that he had met at the hotel were not in sight. He felt as if he had
been thrust into this jovial company, and was unwelcome.

The House was called to order by one of the members of the capital
county, and prayer was offered. He sat quietly in his seat as things
went on. The session adjourned after electing temporary speaker, clerk,
etc. Bradley felt so alien to it all that he scarcely took the trouble
to vote; and when the committee on credentials was appointed, he felt
nervously in his pocket to see that his papers were safe. He felt very
much as he used to when, as a boy, he went to have his hair cut, and
sat in torture during the whole operation, in the fea