y his letter of introduction and
his bad "Souvenir" dollar.

"The meeting will please come to order!" he said, rapping the table
smartly. "The Gentleman from Montana has the floor."

"I move you, Mr. Chairman," said the Gentleman from Montana, "that the
letter of introduction be laid upon the table, and that this House do
now go into Committee of putting the other fellows in the Hole."

No objection being heard, this was done. Steve stared at the tabled
letter with a puzzled frown.

"Gentlemen, the Chair awaits your pleasure," he announced, at last.
"Have you any suggestions to make?"

The Gentleman from Montana again obtained recognition.

"Mr. Speaker, I see here present an ex-member, my _alter ego_, Mr.
Reuben Rubber-Neck, who once parted with six months' wages on another
man's game. Mr. Rubber-Neck is a graduate of the celebrated and
expensive school of Experience, of which it is written that a large
and influential class will learn of no other. As an ex-Member, he is
entitled to the privilege of the floor. I, for one, would like to have
his counsels at this juncture."

Thus appealed to, Mr. Rubber-Neck got stumblingly to his feet with a
gawky and timid demeanor.

"Mr. Chairman, it is not a theory but a hell of a condition that
confronts us," he said, uncertainly. "I think that we should use the
letter so providentially er--um--provided to make friends with the
mammon of righteousness. Two heads are proverbially better than one,
if one _is_ an Expert. It behooves us, for the sake of the near and
dear kinsmen, the Mark brothers, that we should so bear ourselves
toward our generous hosts as to make them feel that they have
entertained a devil unawares. Avenge now the innumerable wrongs of me
and my likes. Before deciding on our line of action, however, I should
like to hear from a learned gentleman in our midst, whose brain is
ever fertile in expedients. I refer to the only one of us who has been
through college--in at the front door and out the back. I call on the
representative of the class of Naughty-naughty!"

He sat down amid vociferous cries of "Hear! Hear!"

The Bookman arose gracefully. "While I thank the gentleman who has
preceded me for his encomiums," he said, with deprecatory modesty,
"yet I can lay no claim for scholastic honors, owing to an unfortunate
difference of opinion with the Faculty in the scorching question of
turning state's evidence concerning the ebullition of class feeling,
in w