he inspiration was become decidedly municipal and
urban, evidently reluctant to depart beyond the retail portions of a
metropolis. Her verses beginning, "O, my native city, bride of Hibbard's
winding stream,"--Hibbard's Creek runs west of Plattville, except in
time of drought--"When thy myriad lights are shining, and thy faces,
like a dream, Go flitting down thy sidewalks when their daily toil is
done," were pronounced, at the time of their publication, the best poem
that had ever appeared in the "Herald."

This unlucky newspaper was a thorn in the side of every patriot of
Carlow County. It was a poor paper; everybody knew it was a poor paper;
it was so poor that everybody admitted it was a poor paper--worse, the
neighboring county of Amo possessed a better paper, the "Amo Gazette."
The "Carlow County Herald" was so everlastingly bad that Plattville
people bent their heads bitterly and admitted even to citizens of Amo
that the "Gazette" was the better paper. The "Herald" was a weekly,
issued on Saturday; sometimes it hung fire over Sunday and appeared
Monday evening. In their pride, the Carlow people supported the "Herald"
loyally and long; but finally subscriptions began to fall off and the
"Gazette" gained them. It came to pass that the "Herald" missed fire
altogether for several weeks; then it came out feebly, two small
advertisements occupying the whole of the fourth page. It was breathing
its last. The editor was a clay-colored gentleman with a goatee, whose
one surreptitious eye betokened both indolence of disposition and
a certain furtive shrewdness. He collected all the outstanding
subscriptions he could, on the morning of the issue just mentioned, and,
thoughtfully neglecting several items on the other side of the ledger,
departed from Plattville forever.

The same afternoon a young man from the East alighted on the platform
of the railway station, north of the town, and, entering the rickety
omnibus that lingered there, seeking whom it might rattle to deafness,
demanded to be driven to the Herald Building. It did not strike the
driver that the newcomer was precisely a gay young man when he climbed
into the omnibus; but, an hour later, as he stood in the doorway of the
edifice he had indicated as his destination, depression seemed to have
settled into the marrow of his bones. Plattville was instantly alert to
the stranger's presence, and interesting conjectures were hazarded all
day long at the back door of Ma