interested in the fight, and people were taking one side or the other
with unusual earnestness.

Mr. Hopkins was not greatly pleased that his challenge had been
accepted. He had imagined that the Forbes party would ignore it and
leave him the prestige of crowing over his opponent's timidity. But he
remembered how easily he had subdued Kenneth at the school-house meeting
before the nominations, and had no doubt of his ability to repeat the
operation.

He was much incensed against the girls who were working for Kenneth
Forbes, for he realized that they were proving an important factor in
the campaign. He even attributed to them more than they deserved, for
Uncle John's telling activities were so quietly conducted that he was
personally lost sight of entirely by Mr. Hopkins.

Mr. Hopkins had therefore become so enraged that, against the advice of
his friends, he issued a circular sneering at "Women in Politics." The
newspapers having been subsidized by the opposition so early in the
game, Mr. Hopkins had driven to employ the circular method of
communicating with the voters. Scarcely a day passed now that his corps
of distributors did not leave some of his literature at every dwelling
in the district.

His tirade against the girls was neither convincing nor in good taste.
He asked the voters if they were willing to submit to "petticoat
government," and permit a "lot of boarding-school girls, with more
boldness than modesty" to dictate the policies of the community. "These
frizzle-headed females," continued the circular, "are trying to make
your wives and daughters as rebellious and unreasonable as they are
themselves; but no man of sense will permit a woman to influence his
vote. It is a disgrace to this district that Mr. Forbes allows his
girlish campaign to be run by a lot of misses who should be at home
darning stockings; or, if they were not able to do that, practicing
their music-lessons."

"Good!" exclaimed shrewd Miss Patsy, when she read this circular. "If
I'm not much mistaken, Mr. Hopkins has thrown a boomerang. Every woman
who attended the fete is now linked with us as an ally, and every one of
them will resent this foolish circular."

"I'm sorry," said Kenneth, "that you girls should be forced to endure
this. I feared something like it when you insisted on taking a hand in
the game."

But they laughed at him and at Mr. Hopkins, and declared they were not
at all offended.

"One cannot touch pitch with