ed.

When noon came Uncle John hunted her up, which was not difficult, in
Elmwood, and together they went to the village "hotel" to get something
to eat. The mid-day dinner was not very inviting, but Patsy praised the
cooking to the landlord's wife, who waited upon the table, and Uncle
John bought one of the landlord's cigars after the meal and talked
politics with him while he smoked it.

Then Patsy went over to the general store, and there she met her first
rebuff. Thompson, the proprietor, was a sour-visaged man, tall and lanky
and evidently a dyspeptic. Having been beaten by Hopkins at the last
election, when he ran against him on the Republican ticket, Thompson had
no desire to see Forbes more successful than he had been himself. And
there were other reasons that made it necessary for him to support
Hopkins.

So he was both gruff and disagreeable when Patsy, after buying a lot of
ribbons of him, broached the subject of politics. He told her plainly
that her cousin hadn't a "ghost of a show," and that he was glad of it.

"The young fool had no business to monkey with politics," he added, "and
this will teach him to keep his fingers out of someone else's pie."

"It isn't Mr. Hopkins's pie," declared Patsy, stoutly. "It belongs to
whoever gets the votes."

"Well, that's Hopkins. He knows the game, and Forbes don't."

"Can't he learn?" asked the girl.

"No. He's an idiot. Always was a crank and an unsociable cuss when a
boy, and he's worse now he's grown up. Oh, I know Forbes, all right; and
I haven't got no use for him, neither."

Argument was useless in this case. The girl sighed, gathered up her
purchases, and went into the hardware store.

Immediately her spirits rose. Here was a man who knew Kenneth, believed
in him and was going to vote for him. She had a nice talk with the
hardware man, and he gave her much useful information about the most
important people in the neighborhood--those it would be desirable to win
for their candidate. When he mentioned Thompson, she said:

"Oh, he's impossible. I've talked with him."

"Thompson is really a good Republican," replied Mr. Andrews, the
hardware man. "But he's under Hopkins's thumb and doesn't dare defy
him."

"Doesn't he like Mr. Hopkins?" asked Patsy, in surprise.

"No; he really hates him. You see, Thompson isn't a very successful
merchant. He has needed money at times, and borrowed it of Hopkins at a
high rate of interest. It's a pretty big sum now