re of a
type which he understood--countrymen of that rugged New England stock to
which he himself belonged, whose sons for generations had made lawyers
and statesmen and soldiers for the State and nation. Some were talking
in low voices, and others sat silent on the chairs and sofa, not
awkwardly or uncomfortably, but with a characteristic self-possession
and repose. Mr. Redbrook, towering in front of the stove, came forward.

"Here you be," he said, taking Austen's hand warmly and a little
ceremoniously; "I asked 'em here to meet ye."

"To meet me!" Austen repeated.

"Wanted they should know you," said Mr. Redbrook.

"They've all heard of you and what you did for Zeb."

Austen flushed. He was aware that he was undergoing a cool and critical
examination by those present, and that they were men who used all their
faculties in making up their minds.

"I'm very glad to meet any friends of yours, Mr. Redbrook," he said.
"What I did for Meader isn't worth mentioning. It was an absolutely
simple case."

"Twahn't so much what ye did as how ye did it," said Mr. Redbrook. "It's
kind of rare in these days," he added, with the manner of commenting to
himself on the circumstance, "to find a young lawyer with brains that
won't sell 'em to the railrud. That's what appeals to me, and to some
other folks I know--especially when we take into account the situation
you was in and the chances you had."

Austen's silence under this compliment seemed to create an indefinable
though favourable impression, and the member from Mercer permitted
himself to smile.

"These men are all friends of mine, and members of the House," he said,
"and there's more would have come if they'd had a longer notice. Allow
me to make you acquainted with Mr. Widgeon of Hull."

"We kind of wanted to look you over," said Mr. Widgeon, suiting the
action to the word. "That's natural ain't it?"

"Kind of size you up," added Mr. Jarley of Wye, raising his eyes.
"Callate you're sizable enough."

"Wish you was in the House," remarked Mr. Adams of Barren. "None of us
is much on talk, but if we had you, I guess we could lay things wide
open."

"If you was thar, and give it to 'em as hot as you did when you was
talkin' for Zeb, them skunks in the front seats wouldn't know whether
they was afoot or hossback," declared Mr. Williams of Devon, a town
adjoining Mercer.

"I used to think railrud gov'ment wahn't so bad until I come to the
House this time," remarked