the bully. The people got mad at Tweed when he said that, and they
chased him over the world, and landed him in the penitentiary, where
he died. That will be the fate of some of these trust magnates. The
foundation of the trust is corruption. Its trade mark was uttered years
ago by a great railroad man who said, 'The public be d----d.' That
expression is in the mind of every man connected with a trust. He turns
the thumbscrews on the public, raises prices, and if they complain,
he says, 'What are you going to do about it?' and if anybody says the
public cannot stand it, they say 'the public be blessed,' or the other
thing. Now, wait. The public will be making laws, and the first law
that is made will be one that sends a man to the penitentiary who robs
through a trust. If three men combine to rob it is a conspiracy. If
a hundred or a thousand combine to rob seventy million people, it is
treason. You wait, boys, and you will hear a noise one of these days
when the people speak, and you will hear trust magnates who fail to
get across the ocean before the tornado of public indignation strikes,
begging for mercy. Now, gosh blast you, run away. You have got me to
talking again," and Uncle Ike lighted his pipe and shut up like a clam,
while the boys went out looking for trouble.

Uncle Ike had been dozing and smoking, and fixing his fishing tackle,
and oiling his gun, and whistling, and trying to sing, all alone, for
an hour, after the boys had gone out to have fun, and when he saw them
coming in the gate, two of them carrying a big striped watermelon, and
the others watching that it did not fall on the ground, he was rather
glad the boys had come back, and he opened the door and went out on the
porch and met them.

"S-h-h!" said the red-headed boy, as Uncle Ike thumped the melon with
his hard old middle finger, to see if it was ripe. "Don't say a word.
Let's get it inside the house, quick, and you carve it, Uncle," and they
brought it in and laid it on the table, and the boys looked down the
street as though they were expecting some one.

"We never used to ask any questions when I was a boy, when a melon
suddenly showed up, and nobody knew from whence it came," said Uncle
Ike, as he put both hands on the melon and pressed down upon it, and
listened to it crack. "Do you know, if a person takes potatoes, or baled
hay, that does not belong to him, it is stealing, but if a melon elopes
with a boy, or several boys, the melon i