, who had removed his hat and ascended
the steps.

"Gentlemen," he began, "you know me."

"Yes," sobbed the wag, "we know you and we know ourselves, unfortunate
creatures that we air--an' we thought we knowed the women in this
county. We've dandled some of 'em on our knees. We've drawed 'em in
times past to our unworthy bosoms--but now all is changed. We've lost
'em! Where, oh, where----"

"Shet up, you darn fool! and let us hear what he has to say."

The "darn fool" laid his head in the dust, and gave himself up wholly to
his grief.

"I was about to say," Fairfield began again, "that you know me----"

"Yes!"

"Shet up!"

"--and you know I have always stood for what was right among you----"

"Always! Give me five dollars for my vote last 'lection, ginerous man!"

Fairfield lifted his voice and hastened to drown these revelations of
his generosity.

"I believe in woman! She has been the 'pillow' of cloud by day and fire
by night----"

"Candle in the window, John, don't forget that!"

"--that guides us through the wilderness of the world, and now she has
become the bright new star of our better destinies! We must follow
her----"

"Dangerous to monkey with female stars!"

"--No man ever loses his way who trusts such women as we have among us."

"Sampson, oh, Sampson, listen to that!" cried the voice at his feet.

"For thirty years I have served one woman faithfully. I owe everything I
am and everything I have to this service."

Every man present had a vision of the little, frail, white-haired woman
who lay in his house helpless and blind. Never before had he referred to
her, but they knew his devotion. He lifted himself in their regard by
this one sentence. There are moments when even the demagogue may show
the halo of a saint. Fairfield, henchman of Prim, never suspected it,
but this was the crowning hour of his life, the one moment when he stood
without fear and without reproach like a true knight.

"My advice to every citizen present is that he vote this day for the
women who have cast so many ballots for us in their prayers!" he
concluded, bowing to their cheers.

Immediately after there was a rush for the polls.

In Jordantown the day passed quietly. The women were in strict
seclusion. All the "prominent citizens" were working earnestly at the
polls for the cause of suffrage. At last the hour arrived for counting
the ballots. The town had gone overwhelmingly for suffrage for women,
but the