l repeal it. But so long as the
law exists it should be enforced."

The advice of Lawyer Miles, coupled with the tears of Alice, finally
prevailed. Alice fancied that I was in danger of being committed to
prison, and she hysterically represented to me the horror of the
ignominy which would ever thereafter attach to our family name. In one
breath she proposed to send post haste for our pastor, the Rev. Dr.
Sungaulus, in the hope that by means of his spiritual ministrations I
might be dissuaded from further defiance of the law; in the next breath
she conjured me by every regard I had for the future of our
children--Galileo, Herschel, Fanny, Erasmus, and Josephine--to listen
to the Voice of Reason. At the mention of Josephine's name I weakened,
for, as I have already intimated to you, the innocent babe has acquired
a powerful hold upon the tendrils of my heart. In an instant my anger
departed.

"It shall be as you say, Alice: I will pay the fine and costs. But
from this moment I consecrate my life to the election of councilmen
from the Twenty-fifth Ward who will repeal that odious ordinance and
make it legal for property-owners to sprinkle their lawns when and how
they please."

In looking back over the short period of the history of "our house" I
find no other incident so disagreeable as this one which I have just
narrated. Even at this remote date I cannot refer to it without
feeling my gorge rise. By nature I am peaceful, and I am exceeding
slow to wrath. But anything that savors of injustice exasperates me to
the degree of frenzy. I am still fixed in my determination to secure
the repeal of the ordinance which robbed me of seven dollars and fifty
cents and is jeoparding the lives of my lilac bushes, my peonies, my
twin cherry-trees (George and Martha), and my grass. I intend to see
that the matter is brought up at the next quarterly meeting of the
Buena Park Benevolent and Protective Citizens' Association, and you can
depend upon it that when that association speaks its tones are heard
around the world and go thundering down the ages.

This affair of mine with the odious ordinance was duly reported in the
daily newspapers through the delectable medium of the column headed
"Minor Criminal Items." It did not conduce to my equanimity to see my
name catalogued with persons arrested for sneak thievery,
pocket-picking, drunkenness, brawling, and mayhem. I never before
suspected that my friends made a practi