d Mr. Worthington when
the applause was over, had been the dream of a certain delicate youth who
had come, many years ago, to Brampton for his health. (It is a curious
fact, by the way, that Mr. Worthington seldom recalled the delicate youth
now, except upon public occasions.)

Yes, the dream of that youth had been to benefit in some way that
community in which circumstances had decreed that he should live, and in
this connection it might not be out of place to mention a bill then
before the Legislature of the state, now in session. If the bill became a
law, the greatest modern factor of prosperity, the railroad, would come
to Brampton. The speaker was interrupted here by more applause. Mr.
Worthington did not deem it dignified or necessary to state that the
railroad to which he referred was the Truro Railroad; and that he, as the
largest stockholder, might indirectly share that prosperity with
Brampton. That would be wandering too far, from his subject, which, it
will be recalled, was civic duties. He took a glass of water, and went on
to declare that he feared--sadly feared--that the ballot was not held as
sacred as it had once been. He asked the people of Brampton, and of the
state, to stop and consider who in these days made the laws and granted
the franchises. Whereupon he shook his head very slowly and sadly, as
much as to imply that, if the Truro Bill did not pass, the corruption of
the ballot was to blame. No, Mr. Worthington could think of no better
subject on this Birthday of Independence than a recapitulation of the
creed of our forefathers, from which we had so far wandered.

In short, the first citizen, as became him, had delivered the first
reform speech ever heard in Brampton, and the sensation which it created
was quite commensurate to the occasion. The presence in the audience of
Jethro Bass, at whom many believed the remarks to have been aimed, added
no little poignancy to that sensation, although Jethro gave no outward
signs of the terror and remorse by which he must have been struck while
listening to Mr. Worthington's ruminations of the corruption of the
ballot. Apparently unconscious of the eyes upon him, he walked out of the
meeting-house with Cynthia by his side, and they stood waiting for
Wetherell and Ephraim under the maple tree there.

The be-ribboned members of the Independence Day committee were now on the
steps, and behind them came Isaac Worthington and Mr. Merrill. The
people, scenting