se. Not a day passed by that the world was not
the better because this man, humble as he was, had lived. He never
stepped aside from his own path, yet would always reach a blessing to
his neighbor. Almost involuntarily, too, he had become a preacher. The
pure and high simplicity of his thought, which took shape in the good
deeds that dropped silently from his hand, flowered also forth in
speech. He uttered truths that molded the lives of those who heard him.
His hearers, it may be, never suspected that Ernest, their own neighbor
and familiar friend, was more than an ordinary man; least of all did
Ernest himself suspect it; but thoughts came out of his mouth that no
other human lips had spoken.

When the people's minds had had a little time to cool, they were ready
enough to acknowledge their mistake in imagining a similarity between
General Blood-and-Thunder and the benign visage on the mountain side.
But now, again, there were reports and many paragraphs in the
newspapers, affirming that the likeness of the Great Stone Face had
appeared upon the broad shoulders of a certain eminent [v]statesman. He,
like Mr. Gathergold and Old Blood-and-Thunder, was a native of the
valley, but had left it in his early days, and taken up the trades of
law and politics. Instead of the rich man's wealth and the warrior's
sword he had but a tongue, and it was mightier than both together. So
wonderfully eloquent was he that, whatever he might choose to say, his
hearers had no choice but to believe him; wrong looked like right, and
right like wrong. His voice, indeed, was a magic instrument: sometimes
it rumbled like the thunder; sometimes it warbled like the sweetest
music. In good truth, he was a wondrous man; and when his tongue had
acquired him all other imaginable success,--when it had been heard in
halls of state and in the courts of princes,--after it had made him
known all over the world, even as a voice crying from shore to
shore,--it finally persuaded his countrymen to select him for the
presidency. Before this time,--indeed, as soon as he began to grow
celebrated,--his admirers had found out the resemblance between him and
the Great Stone Face; and so much were they struck by it that throughout
the country this distinguished gentleman was known by the name of Old
Stony Phiz.

While his friends were doing their best to make him President, Old Stony
Phiz, as he was called, set out on a visit to the valley where he was
born. Of cou