hem. I'm laughed
at and reviled, a subject for contemptuous jeers, and--and it hurts me.
I don't like to be beaten. I'd fight to the last gasp, if I had any show
to win. But these conditions, which I foolishly but honestly brought
about myself, have defeated me so far in advance that I have absolutely
no hope to redeem myself. That's all. Don't speak of it again, girls.
Play me that nocturne that I like, Beth."

"We've got to speak of this, Kenneth, and speak of it often. For we
girls have come down here to electioneer, and for no other reason on
earth," declared Patsy.

"_What! You_ electioneer?"--a slight smile curled his lips.

"Exactly. We're here to brace up and get to work."

"And to win," added Beth, quietly.

"And to put you in the Legislature where you belong," declared Louise.

Kenneth turned to Mr. Merrick.

"Talk to them, Uncle John," he begged.

"I have," said the little man, smiling, "and they've convinced me that
they mean business. It's all up with you, my boy, as a private citizen.
You're as good as elected."

Ken's eyes filled.

"You're all very kind, sir," he said, "as you were bound to be. And--and
I appreciate it all--very much. But Mr. Watson will tell you that the
case is hopeless, and there's nothing to be done."

"How about it, Watson?" inquired Uncle John, turning to the lawyer.

"I'll explain the proposition, sir, so you will all understand it," he
replied, and drew his chair into the circle. "To begin with, Kenneth
visited the glen one day, to make a sketch, and found his old table-rock
covered with an advertising sign."

"How preposterous!" exclaimed Louise.

"There were three of these huge signs in different parts of the glen,
and they ruined its natural beauty. Kenneth managed to buy up the spaces
and then he scrubbed away the signs. By that time he had come to detest
the unsightly advertisements that confronted him every time he rode out,
and he began a war of extermination against them."

"Quite right," said Patsy, nodding energetically.

"But our friend made little headway because the sympathies of the people
were not with him."

"Why not, sir?" inquired Beth, while Kenneth sat inwardly groaning at
this baring of his terrible experiences.

"Because through custom they had come to tolerate such things, and could
see no harm in them," replied the lawyer. "They permit their buildings
which face the roads to be covered with big advertisements, and the
fences are decor