you?--Rev'en' Leviticus Wisdom--on'y niggeh that eveh
refused a office!"--he giggled--"Well, he ensued to tu'n me out'n the
church. Yass, seh, faw nothin' but fallin' in love with his daughteh--my
step-sisteh--sayin' I run her out'n the county!

"But he couldn't p'ocure a sufficient concawdence o' my fellow-citizens;
much less o' they wives--naw evm o' mine! No, seh! They brought in they
verdic' that jess at this junction it'd be cal'lated to ungendeh strife
an' could on'y do hahm." He giggled again.

"My politics save me, seh! They always will. An' they ought to; faw they
as pyo as the crystial fountain."

The keeper brought a stew of canned oysters. The lobbyist served it, and
Mr. Leggett talked on.

"Thass the diffunce 'twixt me and Gyarnit. That man's afraid o' me--jess
as 'fraid as a chicken-hawk is of a gun, seh!--an' which nobody knows
why essep' him an' me. But thass jess the diff'ence. Nobody reputes him
to steal, an' I don't say he do. I ain't ready to say it yit, you
un'stan'; but his politics--his politics, seh; they does the stealin'!
An' which it's the low-downdest kind o' stealin', for it's stealin' fum
niggers. But thass the diff'ence; niggers steals with they claws, white
men with they laws. The claws steals by the pound; the laws steals by
the boatload!"

The lobbyist agreed.

"Jess so!" cried Mr. Leggett. "Ef Gyarnit'd vote faw the things o' one
common welfare an' gen'l progress an' program, folks--an' niggers
too--could affode faw him to vote faw somepm fat oncet in a while an' to
evm take sugar on his vote--an' would sen' him to the ligislatur' stid
o' me. Thass not sayin' I eveh did aw does take sugar on my vote. Ef I
wins a bet oncet in a while on whether a certain bill 'll pass, why,
that, along o' my official emoluments an' p'erequisites evince me a
sufficient plenty.

"Wife?--Estravagant?--No!--Oh! you thinkin' o' my secon' wife. Yes, seh,
she was too all-fired estravagant! I don't disadmire estravagant people.
I'm dreadful estravagant myseff. But Sophronia jess tuck the rag off'n
the bush faw estravagance. Silk dresses, wine, jewelry--it's true she
mos'ly spent her own green-backs, but thass jess it, you see; I jess had
to paht with her, seh! You can asphyxiate that yo'seff, seh.

"Now this wife I got now--eh? No, I ain't never ezac'ly hear the news
that the other one dead, but I suspicioned her, befo' she lef', o' bein'
consumpted, an'--O anyhow she's dead to me, seh! Now, the nex'