"He's a Free Trade Republican," said the Judge, quietly.

"How do yeh know?"

"Oh, I know. Haven't I been a workin' 'im for these last two years? Did
you expect a man to live with me and not become inoculated with the
Simon-pure Jeffersonian Democracy?"

"I don't believe it," Amos replied; "and I won't till I hear him say so
himself. I want to see him go to Des Moines, but I want to see him go
as a Republican."

"Well, you attend the Independent convention next week, and you'll hear
something that'll set you thinking. Your Grange is losing force. You
failed to elect your candidate last year. Now, if we put up a man who
is a farmer and a clean man--a man that can sweep the county and carry
Rock River--why not join in and elect him?"

The railroad interest was the great opposing factor; and the Judge, who
was a great politician, had calculated upon a fusion of the farmer
Republicans and the Democrats. He was really the ablest man in that
part of the State, and could wield the Democratic party like a pistol.
He succeeded in getting Amos, Councill, Jennings, and a few other
leading grangers to sign his call for a people's convention to nominate
county officers and the member of the legislature. It really amounted
to a union of the independent Republicans and the young Democrats.

The old liners, however, were there, and set out from the first to
control the convention, as was shown in the opening words of the
chairman, old man Colwell, whom the Judge had kindly allowed in the
chair, in order that he might have a chance to speak on the floor.

"This is a great day for us," said the chairman. "We've waited a long
time for the people to see that Republican rings were sapping the
foundations of political honesty, but they see it now. This crowded
convention, fellow-citizens, shows that the deathless principles of
Jacksonian Democracy still slumber under the ashes of defeat."

He went on in this strain, calmly taking to himself and the other old
moss-backs (as young Mason contemptuously called them) all the credit
of the meeting, and bespeaking, at the same time, all the offices.

Following this intimation, Colonel Peavy presented a slate, wherein all
the leading places on the ticket had been given "to the men who stood
so long for the principles of Jackson and Jefferson. It was fitting
that these men should be honored for their heroic waiting outside the
gates of emolument."

Young Mason was on his feet in an inst