the last apple was secured, so that none
could snatch it away. Then began the fusilade of cores and parings.
Shining stove-pipe hats were choice game, and to throw a core clean
through a silk hat was a distinction which everybody seemed to covet.
In five minutes not a tall hat was to be seen. Colonel Peavy wrapped
his handkerchief around his, thus drawing upon himself the attack of
the entire crowd, and he was forced to retreat.

Then they threw at faces and bald heads. The uproar redoubled. No one
was drunk, no one was mad; but the scene was furious with mirth. It was
contagious. Word spread outside, and the whole male population of the
town jammed into the stairway, and struggled furiously to reach the
court-room, where the fun was going on. A stranger would have imagined
it the loosing of the hordes of hell.

In the streets of the town, the boys, without the slightest care about
who was elected, were stealing kerosene barrels and dry-goods boxes, in
order to keep the bonfire going. When they heard of the free apples
which they had missed by their zeal in bonfiring, a bitterness came
upon them, and they came together and tried to organize a committee to
go down and see Judge Brown and state their grievance.

At last one desperate young fellow took the lead, and the rest marched
after. He moved off down the street, shouting through his closed lips
"_Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum!_" The rest took up the drum-like cry, and
marched after him two and two. They made straight toward Judge Brown's
office, where they knew Bradley was. They halted and raised a great
shout.

"Three cheers for the Honorable Brad," and gave them wildly.

This brought the Judge out; and when they saw him, they yelled in
lugubrious tones, as if they were starving, "Apples! apples!"

The Judge shouted down, "All right, boys, I'll send Robie up. He'll
roll out all the apples you want." The boys gave another cheer, and
left.

Bradley sat there in the Judge's office in a sort of daze. He could not
say a word. His thought was not clear. He was not at all anxious.
Somehow he could not feel that it was his fate that was being decided.
On the contrary, it seemed to be some other person. He was not excited;
he was only puzzled and wondering.

At last the crowd was heard coming from the Court House. Wild cheers
sounded faintly far up the street. The sound of a band was heard, and
the marching of feet, rhythmic on the sidewalks. There came the sound
of rap