answered Lem, quietly. And, show them
he did.

"Git to it!" shouted Chester, scornfully, "I'll git to it. I'll tell
you right now I'm a candidate for the Chairman of the Selectmen, if town
meetin' is eight months away. An', Sam Price, I'll expect the Democrats
to git into line."

With this ultimatum Chester drove away as rapidly as he had come.

"I want to know!" said Sam Price, an exclamation peculiarly suited to
his voice. But nevertheless Sam might be counted on in each of these
little rebellions. He, too, had remained steadfast to Jacksonian
principles, and he had never forgiven Jethro about a little matter of a
state office which he (Sam) had failed to obtain.

Before he went to bed Jake Wheeler had written a letter which he
sent off to the state capital by the stage the next morning. In it he
indicted no less than twenty of his fellow-townsmen for treason; and
he also thought it wise to send over to Clovelly for Bijah Bixby,
a lieutenant in that section, to come and look over the ground and
ascertain by his well-known methods how far the treason had eaten into
the body politic. Such was Jake's ordinary procedure when the bombs were
fired, for Mr. Wheeler was nothing if not cautious.

Three mornings later, a little after seven o'clock, when the storekeeper
and his small daughter were preparing to go to Brampton upon a very
troublesome errand, Chester Perkins appeared again. It is always easy to
stir up dissatisfaction among the ne'er-do-wells (Jethro had once done
it himself), and during the three days which had elapsed since Chester
had flung down the gauntlet there had been more or less of downright
treason heard in the store. William Wetherell, who had perplexities of
his own, had done his best to keep out of the discussions that had raged
on his cracker boxes and barrels, for his head was a jumble of figures
which would not come right. And now as he stood there in the freshness
of the early summer morning, waiting for Lem Hallowell's stage, poor
Wetherell's heart was very heavy.

"Will Wetherell," said Chester, "you be a gentleman and a student,
hain't you? Read history, hain't you?"

"I have read some," said William Wetherell.

"I callate that a man of parts," said Chester, "such as you be, will
help us agin corruption and a dictator. I'm a-countin' on you,
Will Wetherell. You've got the store, and you kin tell the boys the
difference between right and wrong. They'll listen to you, because
you're ed