u come in?

BOLLINGER. No, thank you. Too hot. Down to Louisiana on
business--sweat clean through two paper collars. This'n's getting
mealy. [_He wipes his neck._

JOE. 'J-ever see such weather. [_Punches_ LIZBETH _to get out of
rocker; sits in her place._ LIZBETH _goes to the melodeon stool._

BOLLINGER. Not since I was born. I hope the blamed rain's over. All
passenger trains holdin' down to eight mile an hour 'tween St. Charles
and Jonesburg on the Wabash on 'count of the wash-outs.

JOE. Why don't they ballast that air track?

BOLLINGER. Too stingy, I reckon. Say, Joe, if you git through the
convention, and they send you up to Jeff City, you'll have to jump on
the corporations.

JOE. Well, how do things look for the convention?

BOLLINGER. Well, down Louisiana way looks about six and half a dozen.
You wouldn't have any trouble at all, if we could get Radburn out o'
the race.

JOE. Well, I ain't got no right to ask him to do that.

KATE. [_From the doorway._] Do you mean, Colonel, that Mr. Radburn's
following will be a serious opposition to father's nomination?

BOLLINGER. Well, it looks that way, Kate.

KATE. Is there a chance of Mr. Radburn's getting the nomination?

BOLLINGER. Yes, I should say it was a stand-off atween him an' the
Guv'nor, but I'm a-rootin' for your pa.

MRS. VERNON. Well, I can't see what right Jim Radburn has got to be as
strong with the Democracy as Joe Vernon. [_Crosses to dish-pan._

JOE. You can't say nothin' against Jim, ma.

MRS. VERNON. I ain't. I'm just askin'.

BOLLINGER. Well, you see Jim's bein' sheriff four terms, an' never
shootin' anybody--

MRS. VERNON. Why, he's shot fifty!

BOLLINGER. Well, I meant never killin' nobody, has naturally endeared
him to the peaceable element in the community. Jim has always said,
and stuck to it, that a sheriff who couldn't wing a prisoner without
killin' him, was a nuisance--and you take his record, and go clean
through it, you'll find out this one thing. If a man was runnin', Jim
fetched him in the leg. If he pulled a gun on him, Jim smashed that
hand. And he says, "You ain't got a right to kill another man, unless
that man draws two guns at the same time."

JOE. Yes, I reckon Jim's the gamest we ever had.

BOLLINGER. He came up on the stage to-night from Louisiana.

JOE. Was he "'lectioneering" down there?

BOLLINGER. No, I ain't heerd of him makin' no canvass. He was helpin'
me to collect testimony.

MRS. VERNON. T