g. That lawsuit
Mr. Thatcher brought against papa and Aunt Sally made her pretty hot,
but papa will fix that up all right. Papa always fixes up everything,"
she concluded admiringly.

It was in Sylvia's mind that she was witnessing a scene of the national
drama and that these men beneath her in the noisy hall were engaged upon
matters more or less remotely related to the business of
self-government. She had derived at college a fair idea of the questions
of the day, but the parliamentary mechanism and the thunder of the
captains and the shouting gave to politics a new, concrete expression.
These delegates, drawn from all occupations and conditions of life, were
citizens of a republic, endeavoring to put into tangible form their
ideas and preferences; and similar assemblies had, she knew, for years
been meeting in every American commonwealth, enacting just such scenes
as those that were passing under her eyes. Her gravity amused Mrs. Owen.

"Don't you worry, Sylvia; they are all kind to their families and most
of 'em earn an honest living. I've attended lots of conventions of all
parties and they're all about alike: there are more standing collars in
a Republican convention and more whiskers when the Prohibitionists get
together, but they're all mostly corn-fed and human. A few fellows with
brains in their heads run all the rest."

"Look, Marian, Mr. Harwood seems to be getting ready to do something,"
said Sylvia. "I wonder what that paper is he has in his hand. He's been
holding it all morning."

Harwood sat immediately under them. Several times men had passed notes
to him, whereupon he had risen and searched out the writer to give his
answer with a nod or shake of the head. When Thatcher appeared, Dan had
waited for the hubbub to subside and then he left his seat to shake
hands with Bassett's quondam ally. He held meanwhile a bit of notepaper
the size of his hand, and scrutinized it carefully from time to time. It
contained the precise programme of the convention as arranged by
Bassett. Morton Bassett was on a train bound for the pastoral shades of
Waupegan a hundred miles away, but the permanent chairman had in his
vest pocket a copy of Bassett's scheme of exercises; even Thatcher's
rapturous greeting had been ordered by Bassett. There had already been
one slight slip; the eagerness of the delegates to proceed to the
selection of the state ticket had sent matters forward for a moment
beyond the chairman's control.