ng the tough ones, he might be the
strongest and toughest and scrappiest and quickest lad on his feet that
ever was, but out there in that quarrying town would be a dozen or
twenty or fifty just as strong and as quick and as scrappy as himself.
And that kind--which was his kind--you might set them up in a row and
knock them down one after another, and just as fast as one went down
another would come bouncing up for the honor of the last word.

New Ireland! Tim viewed a town of two or three hundred small,
square-planned wooden houses, with one green-painted house larger than
most, labelled Kearney's Hotel; another, larger than that again, with a
square cupola, which he knew would be the town hall; and yet one more,
largest of all, white-painted, with a surmounting gold cross, which, of
course, could only be the chapel. A mile or so beyond the town, on the
scarred hillsides, stuck up the derricks of the quarries, which were the
town's reason for being. Beyond the quarries were foot-hills, which
gradually grew up into mountains. It was autumn, and in that high land
the few trees were already bare; before the high wind the bare branches
swayed.

It was not the most encouraging day of the year. Tim, with a warm fire
and a hot meal in view, hurried on to the little hotel. Peter Kearney
was the landlord, a companionable soul, who did not see the need of a
register, and who, after a time, produced a lunch; and who, further,
while Tim ate, smoked and gossiped of things a travelling man would
naturally be interested in.

"And what kind have you here in New Ireland? Easy to get along with?"
asked Tim, after the discovery of the quarries, the settling of the
town, and the last explosion had been intelligently discussed.

"To get along with? The finest, easiest ever--of course if a man don't
cross them."

"I wonder do you think I'll cross them?"

"And what would your business be that you'd be crossing 'em?" the
landlord asked.

"I'm the Republican campaign speaker that's selected to address them
to-night."

"Oh-h! Well, d'y'know, when I didn't see a sample case with you I had my
suspicions; but when you said--or did you say your name was Riley?"

"I did. And it is. R-i-l-e-y--Riley, Timothy J. And there's any number
of Republicans with names as good."

"I dare say, but not in New Ireland--nor likely to be while so many of
your party put us down for a tribe of savages."

"Have patience, Mr. Kearney. There's a new order