thing so fulsome that any human being but J. Rodney Potts
would have sickened to read it of himself.

But our little town was elated. One could observe that last day a
subdued but confident gayety along its streets as citizens greeted one
another.

On every hand were good fellowship and kind words, the light-hearted
salute, the joyous mien. It was an occasion that came near to being
festal, and Solon Denney was its hero. He sought to bear his honors with
the modesty that is native to him, but in his heart he knew that we now
spoke of him glibly as the Boss of Little Arcady, and the consciousness
of it bubbled in his manner in spite of him.

When it was all over,--though I had not once raised my voice in protest,
and had frankly connived with the others,--I confess that I felt shame
for us and pity for the friendless man we were sending out into the
world. Something childlike in his acceptance of the proposal, a few
phrases of naive enthusiasm for his new prospects, repeated to me by
Solon, touched me strangely. It was, therefore, with real embarrassment
that I read the _Argus_ notice. "With profound regret," it began, "we
are obliged to announce to our readers the determination of our
distinguished fellow-townsman, Colonel J. Rodney Potts, to shake the
dust of Little Arcady from his feet. Deaf to entreaties from our leading
citizens, the gallant Colonel has resolved that in simple justice to
himself he must remove to some larger field of action, where his native
genius, his flawless probity, and his profound learning in the law may
secure for him those richer rewards which a man of his unusual caliber
commendably craves and so abundantly merits."

There followed an overflowing half-column of warmest praise, embodying
felicitations to the unnamed city so fortunate as to secure this
"peerless pleader and Prince of Gentlemen." It ended with the assurance
that Colonel Potts would take with him the cordial good-will of every
member of a community to which he had endeared himself, no less by his
sterling civic virtues than by his splendid qualities of mind and heart.

The thing filled me with an indignant pity. I tried in vain to sleep. In
the darkness of night our plan came to seem like an atrocious outrage
upon a guileless, defenceless ne'er-do-well. For my share of the guilt,
I resolved to convey to Potts privately on the morrow a more than
perfunctory promise of aid, should he find himself distressed at any
time in w