ice,
doing no good to anybody, but they won't let me take it out and stamp
intelligence upon it. The town sits gaping for the news, with a bad
eye on me; but what can I do with a great corporation arrayed against
me? For sixty-five cents I could get the paper out, and it's full of
bright things. The account of your defense of the sheep thief is about
as amusing a thing as I ever read, and it will be copied all over the
country; it would put a nation in a good humor irrespective of party
affiliations, but sixty-five millions of people are to be cheated, and
all on account of sixty-five cents, one cent to the million."

"Things are down to a low mark when you have to make your estimates
on that basis. One cent to the million," said Lyman with a quiet
laugh.

"Distressful," Warren replied. "The country was never in such a fix
before. Why, last year about this time I raised eighty cents without
any trouble at all."

"Yes," said Lyman, "you raised it of me."

"That's a fact," Warren admitted. "But do you think the country is as
well off now as it was then?"

"Not financially, but it may be wiser."

"Now, look here, Judge, am I to accept this as an insinuation?"

"How so?" Lyman asked, looking up, his eyes full of mischief.

"Why, speaking of being wiser. I don't know but you meant--well, that
you were too wise to help me out again. You can't deny that the notice
of the partnership was all right."

"We have no complaint to enter on that ground," Caruthers drawled.

"Pardon me, Chancellor, but it wasn't your put-in," Warren replied.
"Your suggestions are worth money and you ought not to throw them
away. But the question is, can I get sixty-five cents out of this
firm?"

"Warren," said Lyman, "I am in sympathy with your cheerful distress."

"But are you willing to shoulder the debt of sixty-five millions of
people? Are you in a position to do that?"

"No," Caruthers drawled, leaning over with a strain and picking up his
pipe from the floor.

"Chancellor," said the editor, "as wise as you are, your example is
sometimes pernicious and your counsel implies evil."

"Oh, I am simply speaking for the firm," Caruthers replied. "As an
individual Lyman can do as he pleases with his capital. Come in, sir."

Some one was tapping at the door, and Lyman, looking around,
recognized the short and wheezing bulk of Uncle Buckley Lightfoot, the
oracle. He almost tumbled out his chair to grasp the old fellow by the
hand; and