adsides into him" because of it, but he doesn't remember what day it
was. This isn't surprising; Keturah's verbal cannonades are likely to
make one forgetful of trifles.

At any rate, whether Tuesday or Wednesday, it is certain that it was
quarter past twelve, according to the clock presented to the Methodist
Society by the Honorable Heman Atkins, when Asaph Tidditt came down the
steps of the townhall, after the selectmen's meeting, and saw Bailey
Bangs waiting for him on the opposite side of the road.

"Hello, Ase!" hailed Mr. Bangs. "You'll be late to dinner, if you don't
hurry. I was headin' for home, all sail sot, when I see you. What kept
you?"

"Town business, of course," replied Mr. Tidditt, with the importance
pertaining to his official position. "What kept YOU, for the land sakes?
Won't Ketury be in your wool?"

Bailey hasn't any "wool" worth mentioning now, and he had very little
more then, but he mopped his forehead, or the extension above it, taking
off his cap to do so.

"I cal'late she will," he said, uneasily. "Tell you the truth, Ase,
I was up to the store, and Cap'n Josiah Dimick and some more of
'em drifted in and we got talkin' about the chances of the harbor
appropriation, and one thing or 'nother, and 'twas later'n I thought
'twas 'fore I knew it."

The appropriation from the government, which was to deepen and widen our
harbor here at Bayport, was a very vital topic among us just then. Heman
Atkins, the congressman from our district, had promised to do his best
for the appropriation, and had for a time been very sanguine of securing
it. Recently, however, he had not been quite as hopeful.

"What's Cap'n Josiah think about the chances?" asked Asaph eagerly.

"Well, sometimes he thinks 'Yes' and then again he thinks 'No,'" replied
Bailey. "He says, of course, if Heman is able to get it he will, but if
he ain't able to, he--he--"

"He won't, I s'pose. Well, _I_ can think that myself, and I don't set
up to be no inspired know-it-all, like Joe Dimick. He ain't heard from
Heman lately, has he?"

"No, he ain't. Neither's anybody else, so fur as I can find out."

"Oh, yes, they have. _I_ have, for one."

Mr. Bangs stopped short in his double-quick march for home and dinner,
and looked his companion in the face.

"Ase Tidditt!" he cried. "Do you mean to tell me you've had a letter
from Heman Atkins, from Washin'ton?"

Asaph nodded portentously.

"Yes, sir," he declared. "A letter from the