and says as polite
as a pollywog, 'Most kind and noble duke,' says I, 'you touch me deeply
by your humptious words!' says I, 'let me assure you, your kind and
generous sentiments will never be erased from the tablets of my most
grateful memory'--just that way.

"Well, say--" and here Mr. Brotherton let out his laugh that came down
like the cataract at Ladore, "pretty soon Morty sails in fresh as a
daisy and asks:

"'Father been in here?'

"'Check one father,' says I.

"'Raising hell?' he asks.

"'Check one hell,' says I.

"'Well, sir,' says he, 'I'm exceedingly sorry.'

"'One sorrow check,' says I.

"'Sincerely and truly sorry, George,' he repeats and 'Two sorrows
check,' I repeats and he goes on: 'Look here, George, I know father, and
until I can get the truth into him, which won't be for a week or two, I
suppose he may try to ruin you!'

"'Check one interesting ruin,' says I.

"But he brought down his hand on the new case till I shuddered for the
glass, and well, say--what do you think that boy done? He pulls out a
roll of money big enough to choke a cow and puts it on the case and
says: 'I sold my launch and drew every dollar I had out of the bank
before father got home. Here, take it; you may need it in your business
until father calms down.'

"Wasn't that white! I couldn't get him to put the roll back and along
comes Cap Morton, and when I wouldn't take it the old man glued on to
him, and I'm a goat if Morty didn't lend it to the Captain, with the
understanding I could have it any time inside of six months, and the
Captain could use it afterward. That's where the Captain got his money
to build his shop."

It cost Daniel Sands five thousand dollars in hard earned money, not
that he earned the money, but it was hard-earned nevertheless, to undo
the work of that convention, and nominate and elect Thomas Van Dorn
district Judge upon an independent ticket. And even when the work was
done, the emptiness of the honor did not convince the Judge that this is
not a material world. He hugged the empty honor to his heart and made a
vast pretense that it was real.

CHAPTER XXIX

BEING NOT A CHAPTER BUT AN INTERLUDE

Here and now this story must pause for a moment. It has come far from
the sunshine and prairie grass where it started. Tall elm trees have
grown from the saplings that were stuck in the sod thirty years before,
and they limit the vision. No longer can one see over the town across
the r