d, that Augustus looked apprehensively at the Colonel who was
becoming visibly uneasy lest he fail to place the joke.

When the two appeared at the office door they bore unmistakable signs of
having enjoyed themselves hugely. Augustus Buzzby gave them his warmest
welcome and seated Uncle Joel in his deepest office chair, providing him
at the same time with a pipe and some cut leaf. The Colonel was in his
glory. With one arm thrown affectionately around young Googe's neck, he
expatiated on the joy of the community as a whole in again welcoming
its own.

"Champney, my dear boy,--you still permit me the freedom of old
friendship?--this town is already looking to you as to its future
deliverer; I may say, as to a Moses who will lead us into the industrial
Canaan which is even now, thanks to my friend, your honored mother,
beckoning to us with its promise of abundant plenty. Never, in my
wildest dreams, my dear boy, have I thought to see such a consummation
of my long-cherished hopes."

It was always one of Champney's prime youthful joys to urge the Colonel,
by judiciously applied excitants, to a greater flowering of eloquence;
so, now, as an inducement he wrung his neighbor's hand and thanked him
warmly for his timely recognition of the new Flamsted about to be.

"Now," he said, "the thing is for all of us to fall into line and forge
ahead, Colonel. If we don't, we'll be left behind; and in these times to
lag is to take to the backwoods."

"Right you are, my dear fellow; deterioration can only set in when the
members of a community, like ours, fail to present a solid front to the
disintegrating forces of a supine civilization which--"

"At it again, Milton Caukins!" It was Mr. Wiggins who, entering the
office, interrupted the flow,--"dammed the torrent", he was wont to say.
He extended a hand to young Googe. "Glad to see you, Champney. I hear
there is a prospect of your remaining with us. Quimber tells us he heard
something to the effect that a position might be offered you by the
syndicate."

"It's the first I've heard of it. How did you hear, Uncle Jo?" He
turned upon the old man with a keen alertness which, taken in connection
with the Colonel's oratory, was both disconcerting and confusing.

"How'd I hear? Le' me see; Champ, what was we just talking 'bout up the
street, eh?"

"Oh, never mind that now," he answered impatiently; "let's hear what you
heard. I'm the interested party just now." But the old man look