ead some," said William Wetherell.

"I callate that a man of parts," said Chester, "such as you be, will help
us agin corruption and a dictator. I'm a-countin' on you, Will Wetherell.
You've got the store, and you kin tell the boys the difference between
right and wrong. They'll listen to you, because you're eddicated."

"I don't know anything about politics," answered Wetherell, with an
appealing glance at the silent group,--group that was always there. Rias
Richardson, who had donned the carpet slippers preparatory to tending
store for the day, shuffled inside. Deacon Lysander, his father, would
not have done so.

"You know somethin' about history and the Constitootion, don't ye?"
demanded Chester, truculently. N'Jethro Bass don't hold your mortgage,
does he? Bank in Brampton holds it--hain't that so? You hain't afeard of
Jethro like the rest on 'em, be you?"

"I don't know what right you have to talk to me that way, Mr. Perkins,"
said Wetherell.

"What right? Jethro holds my mortgage--the hull town knows it-and he kin
close me out to-morrow if he's a mind to--"

"See here, Chester Perkins," Lem Hallowell interposed, as he drove up
with the stage, "what kind of free principles be you preachin'? You'd
ought to know better'n coerce."

"What be you a-goin' to do about that Four Corners road?" Chester cried
to the stage driver.

"I give 'em till to-morrow night to fix it," said Lem. "Git in, Will.
Cynthy's over to the harness shop with Eph. We'll stop as we go 'long."

"Give 'em till to-morrow night!" Chester shouted after them. "What you
goin' to do then?"

But Lem did not answer this inquiry. He stopped at the harness shop,
where Ephraim came limping out and lifted Cynthia to the seat beside her
father, and they joggled off to Brampton. The dew still lay in myriad
drops on the red herd's-grass, turning it to lavender in the morning sun,
and the heavy scent of the wet ferns hung in the forest. Lem whistled,
and joked with little Cynthia, and gave her the reins to drive, and of
last they came in sight of Brampton Street, with its terrace-steepled
church and line of wagons hitched to the common rail, for it was market
day. Father and daughter walked up and down, hand in hand, under the
great trees, and then they went to the bank.

It was a brick building on a corner opposite the common, imposing for
Brampton, and very imposing to Wetherell. It seemed like a tomb as he
entered its door, Cynthia clutching his fi