may seem a joke to you. To me it seems insult and
persecution. I have attended to business, I've worked hard and made
money for both of us. To-day you've held me up before this section to be
laughed at by some and hated by the rest. I'm glad I've had half an hour
to think it over since I first heard about what happened in that caucus.
I won't say the things to you I intended to say. I'll simply say this:
I'm going to write a letter declining this nomination. I'm going to
publish that letter. And I'm going to say in that letter that I will
not take any office that isn't come at honestly."

"Harlan, sit down." His feet had been in one of the porch chairs. He
pushed it toward his grandson. The young man sat down.

"You don't know much about the practical end of politics, do you?"

"I do not."

"You'll allow that I do?"

"You seem to, if that's what you call this sort of business that has
been going on here to-day."

"Bub, look at the thing from my standpoint for just one moment. I'll
consider it from yours, too--you needn't worry. I want you to be
something in this world besides a lumber-jack. You've got the right
stuff in you. I tried argument with you. You'll have to own up that I
did. It didn't work--now, did it?"

"I told you I didn't want to get into politics. I don't want to get in.
I don't like the company."

"Politics is all right, Harlan, when the right men are in. You are the
kind the people are calling for these days. You're clean, straight,
open-minded, and--"

"Clean and straight! And the people are calling for me!" The young man
broke in wrathfully. "You say that to me after the sort of a caucus you
sprung to-day? If that's what you consider a call from the people, I
don't want to be called that way."

"It was a call, but it had to be _shaded_ by _politics_ a little,"
returned the Duke, serenely.

"If a good man is going into politics, he can go in square."

"Sometimes. But not when the opposition is out to do him with every
dirty trick that's laid down in the back of the political almanac."

"If you wanted to start me, and start me fair and right, why didn't you
let my name go before that caucus to-day, and then hold off your hands?"

"Because if I had you'd have stood about the same chance as a worsted
dog chasing an asbestos cat through hell. Look here, bub, I wish I had
the time; I'd like to tell you how most of the good men I know got their
start in politics. You can be a statesman afte