blackness swallowed him up. Uneasy urchins in the
distant village were already popping the first firecrackers of the
celebration. Poet Tate groaned, and fled.

Cap'n Aaron Sproul arrived at the town office next morning in a frame
of mind distinctly unamiable. Though his house was far out of the
village, the unearthly racket of the night had floated up to
him--squawking horns, and clanging bells, and exploding powder. The
hundred cannons at sunrise brought a vigorous word for each
reverberation. At an early hour Hiram Look had come over, gay in his
panoply as chief of the Ancient and Honorables, and repeated his
insistent demand that the Cap'n ride at the head of the parade in
an imported barouche, gracing the occasion as head of the
municipality.

"The people demand it," asseverated Hiram with heat. "The people have
rights over you."

"Same as they had over that surplus in the town treasury, hey?"
inquired the Cap'n. "What's that you're luggin' in that paper as
though 'twas aigs?"

"It's one of my plug hats that I was goin' to lend you," explained
his friend, cheerily. "I've rigged it up with a cockade. I figger
that we can't any of us be too festal on a day like this. I know you
ain't no ways taken to plug hats; but when a man holds office and
the people look to him for certain things, he has to bow down to the
people. We're goin' to have a great and glorious day of this, Cap,"
he cried, all his showman's soul infected by gallant excitement, and
enthusiasm glowing in his eyes. It was a kind of enthusiasm that Cap'n
Sproul's gloomy soul resented.

"I've had consid'able many arguments with you, Hiram, over this
affair, first and last, and just at present reck'nin' I'm luggin'
about all the canvas my feelin's will stand. Now I won't wear that
damnation stove-funnel hat; I won't ride in any baroosh; I won't make
speeches; I won't set up on any platform. I'll simply set in town
office and 'tend to my business, and draw orders on the treasury to
pay bills, as fast as bills are presented. That's what I started out
to do, and that's all I will do. And if you don't want to see me jibe
and all go by the board, you keep out of my way with your plug hats
and barooshes. And it might be well to inform inquirin' friends to
the same effect."

He pushed away the head-gear that Hiram still extended toward him,
and tramped out of the house and down the hill with his sturdy
sea-gait. Dodging firecrackers that sputtered and banged