I didn't allow you'd remember me. It's a matter of four
years since we met at Marysville. And now you're bein' a great man
you've"--

No one could have known from the young man's smiling face that he
really had not recognized his visitor at first, and that his greeting
was only an exhibition of one of those happy instincts for which he was
remarkable. But, following the clew suggested by his visitor, he was
able to say promptly and gayly:--

"I don't know why I should forget Tony Shear or the Marysville boys,"
turning with a half-confiding smile to the other visitors, who, after
the human fashion, were beginning to be resentfully impatient of this
special attention.

"Well, no,--for I've allus said that you took your first start from
Marysville. But I've brought a few friends of our party that I
reckoned to introduce to you. Cap'n Stidger, Chairman of our Central
Committee, Mr. Henry J. Hoskins, of the firm of Hoskins and Bloomer,
and Joe Slate, of the 'Union Press,' one of our most promising
journalists. Gentlemen," he continued, suddenly and without warning
lifting his voice to an oratorical plane in startling contrast to his
previous unaffected utterance, "I needn't say that this is the
honorable Paul Hathaway, the youngest state senator in the Legislature.
You know his record!" Then, recovering the ordinary accents of
humanity, he added, "We read of your departure last night from
Sacramento, and I thought we'd come early, afore the crowd."

"Proud to know you, sir," said Captain Stidger, suddenly lifting the
conversation to the platform again. "I have followed your career, sir.
I've read your speech, Mr. Hathaway, and, as I was telling our mutual
friend, Mr. Shear, as we came along, I don't know any man that could
state the real party issues as squarely. Your castigating exposition of
so-called Jeffersonian principles, and your relentless indictment of
the resolutions of '98, were--were"--coughed the captain, dropping into
conversation again--"were the biggest thing out. You have only to
signify the day, sir, that you will address us, and I can promise you
the largest audience in San Francisco."

"I'm instructed by the proprietor of the 'Union Press,'" said Mr.
Slate, feeling for his notebook and pencil, "to offer you its columns
for any explanations you may desire to make in the form of a personal
letter or an editorial in reply to the 'Advertiser's' strictures on
your speech, or to take any informa