at he was not
going to the West, after all, for the present, and should not need his
money. But, as he turned the bend of the road and neared his house, he
felt a rising fear that some disturbing rumor might have reached his
wife about his action on the jury. And, to his distress and amazement,
there she was, sitting in a chair at the door.

"Lizzie!" he said, "what does this mean? Are you crazy?"

"I'll tell you what it means," she said, as she stood up with a little
smile and clasped her hands behind her. "This morning, it got around
and came to me that you was standing out all alone for John Wood, and
that the talk was that they'd be down on you, and drive you out of
town, and that everybody pitied _me--pitied me_! And when I heard
that, I thought I'd see! And my strength seemed to come all back, and
I got right up, and dressed myself. And what's more, I'm going to get
well now!"

And she did.

YOUNG STRONG OF "THE CLARION."

BY MILICENT WASHBURN SHINN.

_Overland Monthly, September, 1884._

If you had asked any resident of Green's Ferry some eight years
ago--say, in '76--who were the leading men of his town, he would
doubtless have begun:

"Well, there's Judge Garvey, of course. Then there's Uncle Billy
Green, who built the first shanty there in '49, and young Strong of
'The Clarion'--"

However he might continue his enumeration, it would certainly
have been as above for the first three names. One you would have
recognized, if you had been following State politics closely for some
years; for Judge Garvey was very regularly chosen State senator in his
district, and had held the barren honor of presidential elector the
last time his party carried the State. In '76, some of the papers were
urging his nomination for Congress, and politicians thought his
chance of such a nomination increasing. It has not turned out so; his
name has quite dropped out of the papers, and it is said he does not
certainly control his own county now; but at that time he was the most
potent political influence in three counties. What he influenced them
to, I never clearly understood, for I cannot recall that I ever heard
his name mentioned in connection with any measure or opinion.

A file of "The Clarion" during the four years that young Strong was
editor would doubtless throw light on the matter. "The Clarion" was at
this time a sort of voice crying in the wilderness about Reform, which
was a very new idea, indeed, to it