only fragments of the speech, for it was rather
halting, and was not altogether clear in either rhetoric or delivery;
and Mr. Bence could have been a good deal longer in saying what he had
to say, and a thousand times more oratorical. Nevertheless, there was
not a man or woman present who did not declare that it was the greatest
speech ever heard in Plattville; and they really thought so--to such
lengths are loyalty and friendship sometimes carried in Carlow and Amo
and Gaines.

He looked down upon the attentive, earnest faces and into the kindly
eyes of the Hoosier country people, and, as he spoke, the thought kept
recurring to him that this was the place he had dreaded to come back to;
that these were the people he had wished to leave--these, who gave him
everything they had to give--and this made it difficult to keep his
tones steady and his throat clear.

Helen stood so far from the steps (nor could she be induced to penetrate
further, though they would have made way for her) that only fragments
reached her, but what she heard she remembered:

"I have come home... Ordinarily a man needs to fall sick by the wayside
or to be set upon by thieves, in order to realize that nine-tenths
of the world is Samaritan, and the other tenth only too busy or too
ignorant to be. Down here he realizes it with no necessity of illness
or wounds to bring it out; and if he does get hurt, you send him to
Congress.... There will be no other in Washington so proud of what
he stands for as I shall be. To represent you is to stand for
realities--fearlessness, honor, kindness.... We are people who take
what comes to us, and it comes bountifully; we are rich--oh, we are all
Americans here!... This is the place for a man who likes to live where
people are kind to one another, and where they have the old-fashioned
way of saying 'Home.' Other places, they don't seem to get so much into
it as we do. And to come home as I have to-day.... I have come home...."

Every one meant to shake hands with him, and, when the speech was over,
those nearest swooped upon him, cheering and waving, and grasping at
his hand. Then a line was formed, and they began to defile by him, as
he stood on the steps, and one by one they came up, and gave him hearty
greetings, and passed on through the court-house and out at the south
door. Tom Meredith and Minnie Briscoe came amongst the others, and Tom
said only, "Good old boy," as he squeezed his friend's hand; and then,