est deed. It don't make anny difference if all
she knew about her marital hero was that he was a consistent feeder, a
sleepy husband, an' indulgent to his childher an' sometimes to himsilf,
an' that she had to darn his socks. Nearly all th' gr-reat men had
something th' matther with their wives. I always thought Mrs. Wash'nton,
who was th' wife iv th' father iv our counthry, though childless
hersilf, was about right. She looks good in th' pitchers, with a shawl
ar-round her neck an' a frilled night-cap on her head. But Hogan says
she had a tongue sharper thin George's soord, she insulted all his
frinds, an' she was much older thin him. As f'r George, he was a case. I
wish th' counthry had got itsilf a diff'rent father. A gr-reat moral
rellijous counthry like this desarves a betther parent.

"They were all alike. I think iv Bobby Burns as a man that wrote good
songs, aven if they were in a bar'brous accint, but Hogan thinks iv him
as havin' a load all th' time an' bein' th' scandal iv his parish. I
remimber Andhrew Jackson as th' man that licked th' British at Noo
Orleans be throwin' cotton bales at thim, but Hogan remimbers him as a
man that cudden't spell an' had a wife who smoked a corncob pipe. I
remimber Abraham Lincoln f'r freein' th' slaves, but Hogan remimbers how
he used to cut loose yarns that made th' bartinder shake th' stove
harder thin it needed. I remimber Grant f'r what he done ar-round Shiloh
whin he was young, but Hogan remimbers him f'r what he done arr-ound New
York whin he was old.

"An' so it goes. Whin a lad with nawthin' else to do starts out to write
a bi-ography about a gr-reat man, he don't go to th' war departmint or
th' public library. No, sir, he begins to search th' bureau dhrawers,
old pigeon-holes, th' records iv th' polis coort, an' th' recollections
iv th' hired girl. He likes letters betther thin annything else. He
don't care much f'r th' kind beginning: 'Dear wife, I'm settin' in
front iv th' camp fire wearin' th' flannel chest protector ye made me,
an' dhreamin' iv ye,' but if he can find wan beginnin': 'Little Bright
Eyes: Th' old woman has gone to th' counthry,' he's th' happiest
bi-ographer ye cud see in a month's thravel.

"Hogan had wan iv thim books in here th' other day. 'Twas written by a
frind, so ye can see it wasn't prejudiced wan way or another. 'At this
time,' says the book, 'an ivint happened that was destined to change th'
whole coorse iv our hero's life. Wan day, wh