se he
will be here in Plattville without it's leaking out?"

"But they kept guard over him for months and nobody told him."

"Ah," said Briscoe, "but this is different."

"No, no, no!" she exclaimed. "It _must_ be kept from him somehow!"

"He'll know it by to-morrow, so you'd better tell him this evening."

"This evening?"

"Yes. You'll have a good chance."

"I will?"

"He's coming to supper with us. He and your father, of course, and
Keating and Bence and Boswell and Smith and Tom Martin and Lige. We're
going to have a big time, with you and Minnie to do the honors; and
we're all coming into town afterwards for the fireworks; I'll let him
drive you in the phaeton. You'll have plenty of time to talk it over
with him and tell him all about it."

Helen gave a little gasp. "Never!" she cried. "Never!"

The buckboard stopped on the "Herald" corner, and here, and along Main
Street, the line of vehicles which had followed it from the station took
their places. The Square was almost a solid mass of bunting, and the
north entrance of the court-house had been decorated with streamers and
flags, so as to make it a sort of stand. Hither the crowd was already
streaming, and hither the procession made its way. At intervals the
cannon boomed, and Schofields' Henry was winnowing the air with his
bell; nobody had a better time that day than Schofields' Henry, except
old Wilkerson, who was with the procession.

In advance, came the boys, whooping and somersaulting, and behind them,
rode a band of mounted men, sitting their horses like cavalrymen, led by
the sheriff and his deputy and Jim Bardlock; then followed the Harkless
Club of Amo, led by Boswell, with the magnanimous Halloway himself
marching in the ranks; and at sight of this the people shouted like
madmen. But when Helen's eye fell upon his fat, rather unhappy face, she
felt a pang of pity and unreasoning remorse, which warned her that he
who looks upon politics when it is red must steel his eyes to see many a
man with the heart-burn. After the men of Amo, came the Harkless Club
of Gainesville, Mr. Bence in the van with the step of a grenadier. There
followed next, Mr. Ephraim Watts, bearing a light wand in his hand and
leading a detachment of workers from the oil-fields in their stained
blue overalls and blouses; and, after them, came Mr. Martin and Mr.
Landis at the head of an organization recognized in the "Order of
Procession," printed in the "Herald," as the Bu