t school-house on Saturday night,
where Kenneth could address them with logical arguments and endeavor to
win them over to his way of thinking.

The invitation was promptly accepted by the rural population; not so
much because they were interested in the novel ideas of the young artist
as because they expected to be amused by hearing the boyish master of
Elmhurst "lecture at 'em." So they filled the little room to
overflowing, and to add to the dignity of the proceedings the Hon.
Erastus Hopkins, State Representative for the district, lent his
presence to the assemblage.

Not that the Honorable Erastus cared a fig about this foolish talk of
exterminating advertising signs. He was himself a large stockholder in a
breakfast-food factory, which painted signs wherever it could secure
space. These signs were not works of art, but they were distinctly
helpful to business, and only a fool, in the opinion of the Honorable
Erastus, would protest against the inevitable.

What brought the legislator to the meeting was the fact that he was
coming forward for re-election in November, and believed that this
afforded a good chance to meet some of his constituents and make a
favorable impression. So he came early and shook hands with everyone
that arrived, and afterward took as prominent a seat as possible.

Indeed, the gathering had at first the appearance of being a political
one, so entirely did the Representative dominate it. But Mr. Watson took
the platform and shyly introduced the speaker of the evening.

The farmers all knew Mr. Watson, and liked him; so when Kenneth rose
they prepared to listen in respectful silence.

Usually a young man making his maiden speech is somewhat diffident; but
young Forbes was so thoroughly in earnest and so indignant at the
opposition that his plans had encountered that he forgot that it was his
first public speech and thought only of impressing his hearers with his
views, exulting in the fact that on this occasion they could not "talk
back," as they usually did in private when he tried to argue with them.
So he exhorted them earnestly to keep their homes beautiful and free
from the degradation of advertising, and never to permit glaring
commercialism to mar the scenery around them. He told them what he had
been able to accomplish by himself, in a short time; how he had redeemed
the glen from its disgraceful condition and restored it to its former
beauty. He asked them to observe Webb's prett