ere reports and many
paragraphs in the newspapers, affirming that the likeness of the Great
Stone Face had appeared upon the broad shoulders of a certain eminent
statesman. He, like Mr. Gathergold and old Blood-and-Thunder, was a
native of the valley, but had left it in his early days, and taken up
the trades of law and politics. Instead of the rich man's wealth and
the warrior's sword, he had but a tongue, and it was mightier than both
together. So wonderfully eloquent was he, that whatever he might choose
to say, his auditors had no choice but to believe him; wrong looked like
right, and right like wrong; for when it pleased him, he could make a
kind of illuminated fog with his mere breath, and obscure the natural
daylight with it. His tongue, indeed, was a magic instrument: sometimes
it rumbled like the thunder; sometimes it warbled like the sweetest
music. It was the blast of war--the song of peace; and it seemed to have
a heart in it, when there was no such matter. In good truth, he was a
wondrous man; and when his tongue had acquired him all other imaginable
success--when it had been heard in halls of state, and in the courts of
princes and potentates--after it had made him known all over the world,
even as a voice crying from shore to shore--it finally persuaded his
countrymen to select him for the Presidency. Before this time--indeed,
as soon as he began to grow celebrated--his admirers had found out the
resemblance between him and the Great Stone Face; and so much were they
struck by it, that throughout the country this distinguished gentleman
was known by the name of Old Stony Phiz. The phrase was considered as
giving a highly favorable aspect to his political prospects; for, as
is likewise the case with the Popedom, nobody ever becomes President
without taking a name other than his own.

While his friends were doing their best to make him President, Old Stony
Phiz, as he was called, set out on a visit to the valley where he was
born. Of course, he had no other object than to shake hands with his
fellow-citizens, and neither thought nor cared about any effect
which his progress through the country might have upon the election.
Magnificent preparations were made to receive the illustrious statesman;
a cavalcade of horsemen set forth to meet him at the boundary line of
the State, and all the people left their business and gathered along the
wayside to see him pass. Among these was Ernest. Though more than once
d