you?"

The three of them sat in silence for a while.

"I hate to say anything just now, my boy," said the old man, at last. He
leaned forward, his elbows on the arms of his chair. "Luke has put it to
you a little stronger than I should have done. I don't want to beg you
or coax you. If you think it's too much of a sacrifice to stand by
me--if you want to quit, and can't look at it in any other way, go
ahead. I can fight it out alone. I've had a good many lone fights. I'm
good for one more. But before you say what you're going to say, I've got
a last word to drop in. You know how I've dealt with men in business
matters, my boy."

"But why can't you do the same in politics?" demanded his grandson,
bitterly.

"It's just on that point that I want to put you right. I know pretty
well why you haven't hankered to get into politics, Harlan. You've heard
some of the sneers, slurs, and the gossip. You didn't know much about
it, but you sort of felt ashamed of me on account of politics. Hold on!
I know. It has been a kind of shame and pity mixed, like one feels for a
drunkard in the family. This caucus seemed to you like a spree--and you
got mixed into it, and you're angry with me. Listen: there are people in
this world who won't allow that a man is honest in politics unless he
goes about hunting for all the measures that might help him personally
and kills 'em. And the same yellow-skins that howl because he doesn't do
that would turn around and cuss him for seventeen kinds of a fool if he
did, and ruined himself by doing it. I haven't stolen, boy. I've given
my time and my energies to developing this State. I've seen it prosper
and grow big. And I've shared in the prosperity by seeing that my own
interests got their rights along with the rest. I'm where I can look
back. And I can't see where the reputation of being a saint who cut off
his own fingers for a sacrifice would help me get endorsers at the bank
or find friends I could borrow money from. Harlan, boy, I'm an old man.
I can't live much longer. A little reputation of some kind or another
will live after me. I want you to know the right of it. And the only way
for you to find out is to be what I have been. Hearing about it won't
inform you. I want you to meet the men and play the game. I want you to
realize that when I say I've done the best I could, I'm telling you the
truth. Harlan, stand up here with me. Give me your hand. Say that you'll
stand by the old man in thi