izes."

"Exactly," cried Hiram, glowing. "Didn't I always tell you, boys,
that though Cap'n Aaron Sproul might be a little gruff and a bit short,
sea-capt'in fashion, he was all right underneath?"

There was a mumble of assent.

"There ain't a first selectman in this State that has shown any more
science in handlin' his job than Cap'n Aaron Sproul of this town."

"When you come to remember back how he's grabbed in and taken the
brunt every time there's been anything that needed to be handled
proper, you've got to admit all what you've said, Mr. Look," assented
another of the party.

"We know now that it was by Tate forgin' your name and runnin' things
underhanded that the town got into the scrape it did," Hiram went
on. "Them bills had to be paid to keep outsiders slingin' slurs at
us. You done just right. The town will have to meet and vote more
money to pay the rest of the bills. But probably it won't come as
hard as we think. What I was goin' to ask you, Cap'n Sproul, was
whether there ain't an overplus in some departments? We can use that
money so far's it'll go."

"Pauper department has something extry," stated the first selectman,
dryly. "I was thinkin' of buyin' a new furnace for the poor-farm,
but we can let the paupers shiver through another winter so's to pay
them squirtin' prizes to the firemen."

"We don't want to do anything that ain't just accordin' to Hoyle,"
said Hiram, flushing a little, for he sensed the satire. "We'll meet
and vote the money and then we can sit back and take comfort in
thinkin' that there's just the right man at the head of town affairs
to economize us back onto Easy Street." He was eager to flatter. "This
town understands what kind of a man it wants to keep in office. I
take back all I ever said about opposin' you, Cap'n."

"And that's the general sentiment of the town," affirmed Odbar
Broadway.

The face of the first selectman did not indicate that he was
especially gratified.

"That is to say," he inquired grimly, "after I've fussed, figured,
and struggled for most of two years to save money and pay off the
debts of this town and have had the cash yanked away from me like
honey out of a hive, I'm supposed to start in all over again and do
a similar job for this town on a salary of sixty dollars a year?"

"We don't feel you ought to put it just that way," objected Hiram.

"That's the way it suits me to put it. You can do it to me once--you
have done it--but this is w