was a man of quick temper.
He was ready to accept any challenge to a battle, especially
one which seemed to have anything of a personal disrespect
in it. I was present on one occasion when the ludicrous
misspelling of a word, it is very likely, saved him from coming
to blows with a very worthy and well-known citizen of Worcester
County. Colonel Artemus Lee, of Templeton, one of the most
estimable citizens of northern Worcester County, a man imperious
and quick-tempered, who had been apt to have his own way in
the region where he dwelt, and not very willing to give up
to anybody, employed me once to bring suit for him against
the Town of Templeton to recover taxes which he claimed had
been illegally assessed and collected. He was a man whose
spelling had been neglected in early youth. Aldrich was for
the Town. All the facts showing the illegality of the assessment,
of course, were upon the Town records. So we thought if the
parties met with their counsel we could agree upon a statement
of facts and submit the question of law to the court. We
met in Judge Aldrich's office, Colonel Lee and myself and
Judge Aldrich and some of the Town officers, to make up the
statement. But Mr. Aldrich had not had time to look very
deeply into the law of the case, and made some difficulties in
agreeing upon the facts, which we thought rather unreasonable.
We sat up to a late hour in a hot summer evening trying to
get at a statement. At last Lee's patience gave out. He
had had one or two hot passages at arms with Mr. Aldrich
in the course of the discussion already. He rose to his feet
and said in a very loud and angry tone--his voice was always
something like that of a bull of Basham--"This is a farce."
Aldrich rose from his seat and to the occasion and said very
angrily, "What's that you say, Sir?" Lee clenched both fists
by his side, thrust his own angry countenance close up to
that of his antagonist, and said, "A farce, Sir--F-A-R-S-
E, Farce." Aldrich caught my eye as I was sitting behind
my client and noticed my look of infinite amusement. His
anger yielded to the comedy of the occasion. He burst into
a roar of laughter and peace was saved. If Lee had spelled
the word farce with a "c," there would have been a battle
royal.

CHAPTER XXXIX
POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS FAITH

I close this book with a statement of the political principles
which I think define the duty of the American people in the
near future, and from