aw this thing coming about a year ago, and he took
the precaution to have Chauncey Weed and the rest of the Committee in
his pocket--and of course Heth Sutton's always been there."

William Wetherell thought of that imposing and manly personage, the
Honorable Heth Sutton, being in Jethro's pocket, and marvelled.
Mr. Chauncey Weed seemed of a species better able to thrive in the
atmosphere of pockets.

"Well, as I say, there was the Truro Franchise Bill sound asleep in the
Committee, and when Isaac D. Worthington saw that his little arrangement
with Heth Sutton wasn't any good, and that the people of the state
didn't have anything more to say about it than the Crow Indians, and
that the end of the session was getting nearer and nearer, he got
desperate and went to Jethro, I suppose. You know as well as I do that
Jethro has agreed to put the bill through."

"Then why doesn't he get the Committee to report it and put it through?"
asked Wetherell.

"Bless your simple literary nature," exclaimed Mr Merrill, "Jethro's
got more power than any man in the state, but that isn't saying that he
doesn't have to fight occasionally. He has to fight now. He has seven
of the twelve senators hitched, and the governor. But Duncan and Lovejoy
have bought up all the loose blocks of representatives, and it is
supposed that the franchise forces only control a quorum. The end of the
session is a week off, and never in all my experience have I seen a more
praiseworthy attendance on the part of members."

"Do you mean that they are being paid to remain in their seats?" cried
the amazed Mr. Wetherell.

"Well," answered Mr. Merrill, with a twinkle in his eye, "that is a
little bald and--and unparliamentary, perhaps, but fairly accurate. Our
friend Jethro is confronted with a problem to tax even his faculties,
and to look at him, a man wouldn't suspect he had a care in the world."

Jethro was apparently quite as free from anxiety the next morning when
he offered, after breakfast, to show Wetherell and Cynthia the sights of
the town, though Wetherell could not but think that the Throne Room and
the Truro Franchise Bill were left at a very crucial moment to take care
of themselves. Jethro talked to Cynthia--or rather, Cynthia talked to
Jethro upon innumerable subject's; they looked upon the statue of a
great statesman in the park, and Cynthia read aloud the quotation graven
on the rock of the pedestal, "The People's Government, made for the
P