clamorous it was.

"How kin ye say that!" cried Justus. "Fur ye ter stan' thar, ready ter
throw away all yer good chances, jes' kase ye hev got the rheumatics
an' don't feel like viewin' the people--though it 'pears like ye air
well enough ter go huntin' of deer of a damp night at a salt lick! An'
then, kase a mean-spirited half-liver flings dirt on ye an' yer
fambly, fur ye ter sit down on a low stool, an' fill yer mouth with
mud, an' 'low this air plenty good enough fur we-uns! 'Pore folks
ain't fit ter git 'lected ter office!'" with scornful iteration. "My
Lord! this hyar is a democratic kentry!" with an echo from the stump
speeches of the day. "Leastwise the folks yander at Sycamore Gap
'peared ter think so. This hyar Tom Markham he war speakin' on the
issues o' the day, an' bein' he's a frien' o' Sheriff Quigley's, he
tuk a turn at me an' you-uns, o' course. Tole the folks how my dad an'
mam died whenst I war twelve year old, an' how the only reason the
fambly warn't sent ter the pore-house war kase the county folks war
dil'tory, an' put it off, till they 'lowed our own house war pore
enough. An' then he sot out ter be mighty funny, an' mocked the way I
useter call the t'other chil'n 'Fambly,' sech ez--'Fambly, kem ter
dinner, Fambly!' 'Shet up yer cryin', Fambly!' An' then he tole how I
cooked--gathered all sorts o' yarbs an' vegetables tergether an' sot a
pot ter bile, an' whenever 'Fambly' war hongry 'Fambly' tuk a snack,
an' gracefully eat out'n the pot with thar fingers. An' sometimes
'Fambly' war moved ter wash thar clothes, an' they all repaired ter
the ruver-bank, an' rubbed out thar rags, an' hung 'em on the bushes
ter dry--an', duty done, 'Fambly' went a-wadin'. Everybody jes' laffed
an' laffed!"

There was a strained tone in his voice, not far foreign to a sob, as
he repeated these derisive flouts at his early and forlorn estate.

"An' now," resuming their rehearsal, "this enlightened constituency
was asked ter bestow on a scion o' this same 'Fambly'--ignorant,
scrub, pauper--an office of great importance to the people, that
needed to fill it a man o' eddication an' experiunce, varsed in the
ways o' the world--asked to bestow the office o' sheriff o' the county
on a man who war so obviously incomp'tent an' illit'rate that he
darsn't face the people ter make his perposterous demand!"

The wind came and went. The darkling bushes bowed and bent again. The
leaves took up their testimony in elusive, sibil