er
party was climbing the sawdust hill into the town, where Dolph and Rube
were for taking the middle of the street like other mountaineers, who
were marching thus ahead of them, single file, but Tom and the
school-master laughed at them and drew them over to the sidewalk.
Bricks and stones laid down for people to walk on--how wonderful. And
all the houses were of brick or were weather-boarded--all built
together wall against wall. And the stores with the big glass windows
all filled with wonderful things! Then a pair of swinging green
shutters through which, while Chad and the school-master waited
outside, Tom insisted on taking Dolph and Rube and giving them their
first drink of Bluegrass whiskey--red liquor, as the hill-men call it.
A little farther on, they all stopped still on a corner of the street,
while the school-master pointed out to Chad and Dolph and Rube the
Capitol--a mighty structure of massive stone, with majestic stone
columns, where people went to the Legislature. How they looked with
wondering eyes at the great flag floating lazily over it, and at the
wonderful fountain tossing water in the air, and with the water three
white balls which leaped and danced in the jet of shining spray and
never flew away from it. How did they stay there? The school-master
laughed--Chad had asked him a question at last that he couldn't answer.
And the tall spiked iron fence that ran all the way around the yard,
which was full of trees--how wonderful that was, too! As they stood
looking, law-makers and visitors poured out through the doors--a brave
array--some of them in tight trousers, high hats, and blue coats with
brass buttons, and, as they passed, Caleb Hazel reverently whispered
the names of those he knew--distinguished lawyers, statesmen, and
Mexican veterans: witty Tom Marshall; Roger Hanson, bulky, brilliant;
stately Preston, eagle-eyed Buckner, and Breckenridge, the magnificent,
forensic in bearing. Chad was thrilled.

A little farther on, they turned to the left, and the school-master
pointed out the Governor's mansion, and there, close by, was a high
gray wall--a wall as high as a house, with a wooden box taller than a
man on each corner, and, inside, another big gray building in which,
visible above the walls, were grated windows--the penitentiary! Every
mountaineer has heard that word, and another--the Legislator.

Chad shivered as he looked, for he could recall that sometimes down in
the mountains a man w