hat
had been offered their presence by this disorderly behaviour.

"Ladies, don't go. _Dear_ ladies, don't go," called some wags. "We're
only educatin' you in politics,--learning you how to be like your
superiors--men."

This evoked a round of laughter, and order was restored.

"That's right, ladies, don't go; if you was to turn dawg on us now,
we'd be so crestfallen we couldn't think about politics and save the
country at all."

Once more "Tomatoes" belched forth the infamy of the government, and
louder and louder he yelled, till one marvelled at his endurance.
Rougher and hotter grew his repartee till, by sheer abuse, he gained
the ascendancy; but there was no sane statement of what he would
propose as a remedy. Grandma Clay happened to rise as he neared the
finish to see about a reticule she had dropped, and proved a target
for those at the rear.

"Hello, grandma! are you going to contradict him? Give us a straight
tip about women's rights while you're up;" and poor grandma sat down
very precipitately with an exceedingly deep blush.

"If I could only get the chance," she gasped, "I'd give 'em a piece of
me mind."

Third on the list came Leslie Walker, whose improvement was beyond
belief. No notes or hesitation this time. Each sentence was crisp and
clear, and in every detail he evinced the facility for enacting his
_role_ which is supposedly a feminine accomplishment.

The chairman, in closing the meeting, rose to say--

"In reference to the interjector who said the speaker was mad--"

"Oh, that's what every one said about _you_ when you were in the
council, and so you were too, and so are they all. Look at the roads
we've got in the municipality," said a voice.

So the chairman had to let the meeting terminate with the candidates
thanking the electors for the extraordinarily good hearing they had
been accorded; it being part of the humour of politics that the worse
a candidate is boo-hooed the more stress he lays upon the _good
hearing_ given him, and the more scurrilous he is regarding his
opponent the more frantically he assures one that he is a bosom
_personal_ friend.

Andrew and I had the distinction of going home under grandma's
tutelage, while Carry and Dawn stayed behind to go to the ladies'
committee rooms, and Ernest lingered to escort them.

"I say, grandma, are you goin' to vote for that bloke?" inquired
Andrew.

"I'm goin' to hear the other side first, and give me opinion after.
Ther