hey would claim that the reception he received at the
hands of the American people was a put-up job; that he paid all the
expenses himself, out of money he stole from the government, and that
all the cheering was done by hired claquers, who were all promised an
office when he was elected. And then if he was elected, every man that
knew him before he went to Manila would claim to have been the making of
him, and want to be in the cabinet, and every man that has shook hands
with him since, would expect the best office at his disposal, and if
they didn't get the offices they would prove that he was responsible
for the embalmed beef scandal, and that he was in partnership with Capt.
Carter in robbing the government, and ought to be in jail. Oh, you can't
tell me anything about politics, and if I could see Dewey I would tell
him to say nothing but 'nixy' to every proposition to mix him up.
Now, all you boys come in to breakfast," and the old man tossed the boys
toward the dining room door as though they were footballs.

"Well, Uncle Ike, you have punctured our tire again. Every time we get
a scheme to save the country, you come in with your condumed talky-talk,
and throw us in the air. Guess you will have to take the nomination
yourself, and run on a platform of seven words, 'Here's to the boys,
God bless 'em,'" and the red-headed boy got under Uncle Ike's arm, and
the gang went in to breakfast, Uncle Ike trying to argue against being
nominated, and having to go to the White House with a lot of tough boys
making life a burden to him, when he would have to get married, for no
President is a success as a bachelor, as Cleveland found out. As Uncle
Ike got the boys all around the table, he bent his head and reverently
asked a blessing--something he had never done before in the presence of
the red-headed boy, and when the meal was over and the boys had all
gone away, except the warm-haired one, and Uncle Ike had begun to smoke
again, the boy said to him:

"Uncle Ike, I did not know that you belonged to any church."

"Well, I don't," said Uncle Ike, as he got up and looked out of the
window, and blew smoke at a fly that was buzzing on the glass.

"Then how could you ask a blessing, and expect that it will be heard? I
supposed a person had to be initiated in a church, and be sworn in, and
given the password, and take the degrees, before he was ordained to ask
a blessing," said the boy.

"No, that is not necessary," the old man