It has
been hard for us. It is the first time we have ever heard our name fall
from any one's lips--sullied. Be merciful--for the sake or the better
days; make our shame as light to bear as in your charity you can." At
this point in his reverie Mary nudged him, perceiving that his mind was
absent. The house was chanting, "You are f-a-r," etc.

"Be ready," Mary whispered. "Your name comes now; he has read eighteen."

The chant ended.

"Next! next! next!" came volleying from all over the house.

Burgess put his hand into his pocket. The old couple, trembling, began
to rise. Burgess fumbled a moment, then said:

"I find I have read them all."

Faint with joy and surprise, the couple sank into their seats, and Mary
whispered:

"Oh, bless God, we are saved!--he has lost ours--I wouldn't give this
for a hundred of those sacks!"

The house burst out with its "Mikado" travesty, and sang it three times
with ever-increasing enthusiasm, rising to its feet when it reached for
the third time the closing line--

"But the Symbols are here, you bet!"

and finishing up with cheers and a tiger for "Hadleyburg purity and our
eighteen immortal representatives of it."

Then Wingate, the saddler, got up and proposed cheers "for the cleanest
man in town, the one solitary important citizen in it who didn't try to
steal that money--Edward Richards."

They were given with great and moving heartiness; then somebody proposed
that "Richards be elected sole Guardian and Symbol of the now Sacred
Hadleyburg Tradition, with power and right to stand up and look the
whole sarcastic world in the face."

Passed, by acclamation; then they sang the "Mikado" again, and ended it
with--

"And there's ONE Symbol left, you bet!"

There was a pause; then--

A Voice. "Now, then, who's to get the sack?"

The Tanner (with bitter sarcasm). "That's easy. The money has to be
divided among the eighteen Incorruptibles. They gave the suffering
stranger twenty dollars apiece--and that remark--each in his turn--it
took twenty-two minutes for the procession to move past. Staked the
stranger--total contribution, $360. All they want is just the loan
back--and interest--forty thousand dollars altogether."

Many Voices (derisively.) "That's it! Divvy! divvy! Be kind to the
poor--don't keep them waiting!"

The Chair. "Order! I now offer the stranger's remaining document. It
says: 'If no claimant shall appear (grand chorus of groans), I desire
that you ope