f through the purple haze at the
south shoulder of Coniston Mountain.

"How be you, Jethro?" says Mr. Price, nasally.

"D-Democrats are talkin' some of namin' you Moderator next meetin',"
says the man in the coonskin cap.

"Want to know!" ejaculates Mr. Price, dropping the axe and straightening
up in amazement. For Mr. Price's ambition soared no higher, and he had
made no secret of it. "Wal! Whar'd you hear that, Jethro?"

"H-heerd it round--some. D-Democrat--hain't you--Democrat?"

"Always callate to be."

"J-Jacksonian Democrat?"

"Guess I be."

Silence for a while, that Mr. Price may feel the gavel in his hand,
which he does.

"Know somewhat about Jacksonian principles, don't ye--know somewhat?"

"Callate to," says Mr. Price, proudly.

"T-talk 'em up, Sam--t-talk 'em up. C-canvass, Sam."

With these words of brotherly advice Mr. Bass went off down the road,
and Mr. Price chopped no more wood that night; but repeated to himself
many times in his nasal voice, "I want to know!" In the course of the
next few weeks various gentlemen mentioned to Mr. Price that he had been
spoken of for Moderator, and he became acquainted with the names of
the other candidates on the same mysterious ticket who were mentioned.
Whereupon he girded up his loins and went forth and preached the word of
Jacksonian Democracy in all the farmhouses roundabout, with such effect
that Samuel Todd and others were able to talk with some fluency about
the rights of American citizens.

Question before the Committee, undisposed of: Who nominated Samuel Price
for Moderator? Samuel Price gives the evidence, tells the court he does
not know, and is duly cautioned and excused.

Let us call, next, Mr. Eben Williams, if we can. Moses Hatch, Senior,
has already interrogated him with all the authority of the law and the
church, for Mr. Williams is orthodox, though the deacons have to remind
him of his duty once in a while. Eben is timid, and replies to us, as
to Moses, that he has heard of the Democratic ticket, and callates that
Fletcher Bartlett, who has always been the leader of the Democratic
party, has named the ticket. He did not mention Jethro Bass to Deacon
Hatch. Why should he? What has Jethro Bass got to do with politics?

Eben lives on a southern spur, next to Amos Cuthbert, where you can look
off for forty miles across the billowy mountains of the west. From
no spot in Coniston town is the sunset so fine on distant Farewell
Mountain,