eaving this quiet neighborhood for the
turmoil and ungodly hurry of that town. Now you can weigh out the
nails, Jimmie."

CHAPTER II.

THE NOTED ADVOCATE.

Lyman must long have indulged his secret study before the observation
of old Buckley Lightfoot fell upon it, for, at the close of the school
term a few weeks later, the teacher announced that he had formed a
co-partnership with John Caruthers, the noted advocate of Old
Ebenezer, and that together they would practice law in the county
seat. He offered to the people no opportunity to bid him good-bye, for
that evening, with his law library under his arm, he set out for the
town, twenty miles away. Old Uncle Buckley, Jimmie and Lige followed
him, but he had chosen a trackless path, and thus escaped their
reproaches.

The noted advocate, John Caruthers, had an office in the third story
of a brick building, which was surely a distinction, being so high
from the ground and in a brick house, too. There he spent his time
smoking a cob pipe and waiting for clients. His office was a small
room at the rear end of the building. The front room, the remainder
of the suite, was a long and narrow apartment, occupied by the Weekly
_Sentinel_, the county newspaper, published by J. Warren, not edited
at all, and written by lawyers and doctors about town. The great
advocate paid his rent with political contributions to the newspaper,
and the editor discharged his rental obligations by supporting the
landlord for congress, a very convenient and comforting arrangement,
as Caruthers explained to Lyman.

"I don't see how we could be more fortunately situated," said he, the
first night after the co-partnership had been effected. "What do you
think of it?"

"I don't know that I could improve on an arrangement that doesn't cost
any money," Lyman answered. He sat looking about the room, at the
meager furniture and the thin array of books. "We've got a start,
anyway, and I don't think Webster could have done anything without a
start. Are all these our books?"

"Yes," said Caruthers, shaking his sandy head. "That is, they are ours
as long as they are here. Once in awhile a man may come in and take
one; but the next day, or the next minute, for that matter, we can go
out and get another. The Old Ebenezer bar has a circulating library."
He yawned and continued: "I think we ought to do well here, with my
experience and your learning. They tell me you can read Greek as well
as some