as talkin' earnest
close to us.

"'I can't help it, Pete,' says the police cap'n. ''Twas me or the Vice
Suppression crowd. They've been on to you for two weeks back. I only
just got in ahead of 'em as it was. No, you'll have to go along with
the rest and take your chances. Quiet now, everybody, or you'll get it
harder,' he roars, givin' orders like the skipper of a passenger boat.
'Stand in line and wait your turns for the wagon.'

"Jonadab grabbed me by the wrist. He was pale and shakin' all over.

"'Oh, Lordy!' says he, 'we're took up. Will we have to go to jail, do
you think?'

"'I don't know,' I says, disgusted. 'I presume likely we will. Did you
dream anything like this? You'd better see if you can't dream yourself
out now.' Twas rubbin' it in, but I was mad.

"'Oh! oh!' says he, flappin' his hands. 'And me a deacon of the church!
Will folks know it, do you think?'

"'Will they know it! Sounds as if they knew it already. Just listen to
that.'

"The first wagon full of prizes was bein' loaded in down at the front
door, and the crowd outside was cheerin' 'em. Judgin' by the whoops and
hurrahs there wa'n't no less than a million folks at the show, and they
was gettin' the wuth of admission.

"'Oh, dear!' groans Jonadab. 'And it'll be in the papers and all! I
can't stand this.'

"And afore I could stop him he'd run over and tackled the head
policeman.

"'Mister--Mister Cap'n,' he says, pantin', 'there's been a mistake, an
awful mis--take--'

"'That's right,' says the police cap'n, 'there has. Six or eight of you
tin horns got clear. But--' Then he noticed who was speakin' to him
and his mouth dropped open like a hatch. 'Well, saints above!' he says.
'Have the up-state delegates got to buckin' the ponies, too? Why ain't
you back home killin' pertater bugs? You ought to be ashamed.'

"'But we wa'n't gamblin'--me and my friend wa'n't. We was led in here
by mistake. We was told that a feller named Kelly lived here and we're
huntin' for a man of that name. I've got a message to him from his poor
dead father back in Orham. We come all the way from Orham, Mass.--to
find him and--'

"The police cap'n turned around then and stared at him hard. 'Humph!'
says he, after a spell. 'Go over there and set down till I want you. No,
you'll go now and we'll waste no breath on it. Go on, do you hear!'

"So we went, and there we set for ha'f an hour, while the rest of the
gang and the blackboards and the paper slips and