him a lift. Don't you think so, Mrs. Brown?"

Her mouth relaxed a little. The glasses turned upon Bradley again, and
looked upon him so steadily that he was able to see her gray eyes.

"Mr. Brown is always doing things without consulting me," she explained
to Bradley, "but you are welcome, sir, if our lonesome house aint worse
than your cellar. Mr. Brown very seldom takes the trouble to explain
what he wants to do, but I'll try to make you feel at home, sir."

They ate the rest of the meal in silence. The Judge was evidently
thinking over old times, and it would be very difficult to say what his
wife was thinking of. At last he rose saying:

"Now if you'll come out, I'll show you the well and the cow." As he
went by his wife's chair, he stopped a moment, and said gently, "He'll
do us two lonely old fossils good, Elizabeth." His hand lay on her
shoulder an instant as he passed, and when Bradley went out of the
room, he saw her wiping her eyes upon her handkerchief, her glasses in
her hand.

The Judge coughed a little. "We never had but one child--a boy. He was
killed while out hunting"--he broke off quickly. "Now here's the meal
for the cow. I give her about a panful twice a day--when I don't forget
it."

Somehow, Mrs. Brown didn't seem so hard when he met her again at
supper. The line of her mouth was softer. In his room he found many
little touches of her motherly hand--a clean, sweet bed, and little
hand-made things upon the wall, that made him think of his own mother,
who had been dead since his sixteenth year. He had never had such a
room as this. It appeared to him as something very fine. Its frigid
atmosphere and lack of grace and charm did not appear to his eyes. It
was nothing short of princely after his cellar.

His knowledge of the inner life of the common Western homes made him
feel that this rigid coldness between the Judge and his wife was only
their way. The touch of the Judge's hand on her shoulder meant more
than a thousand worn phrases spoken every day. Under that silence and
reserve there was a deep of tenderness and wistful longing which they
could not utter, and dared not acknowledge, even to themselves. Their
lonely house had grown intolerable, and Bradley came into it bringing
youth and sunlight.

X.

A COUNTRY POLLING PLACE.

The suffering of the county papers was acute. They had supported the
"incumbents" for so long, and had derived a reciprocal support so long,
that they co