hop, just around the corner, the Captain stopped the
horse, got down, and went in. When he came out he had a handful of
cigars.

"Why, Captain Eri," said Elsie, "I didn't know that you smoked cigars. I
thought a pipe was your favorite."

"Well, gin'rally speakin', 'tis," was the answer, "but I'm
electioneerin' now, and politics without cigars would be like a chowder
without any clams. Rum goes with some kind of politics, but terbacker
kind of chums in with all kinds. 'Tain't always safe to jedge a
candidate by the kind of cigars he gives out neither; I've found that
out.

"Reminds me of a funny thing that Obed Nickerson told me one time. Obed
used to be in politics a good deal up and down the Cape, here, and he
had consider'ble influence. 'Twas when Bradley up to Fall River was
runnin' for Congress. They had a kind of pow-wow in his office--a whole
gang of district leaders--and Obed he was one of 'em. Bradley went to
git out the cigar-box, and 'twas empty, so he called in the boy that
swept out and run errands for him, give the youngster a ten-dollar bill,
and told him to go down to a terbacker store handy and buy another box.
Well, the boy, he was a new one that Bradley'd jest hired, seemed kind
of surprised to think of anybody's bein' so reckless as to buy a whole
box of cigars at once, but he went and pretty soon come back with the
box.

"The old man told him to open it and pass 'em round. Well, everybody
was lookin' for'ard to a treat, 'cause Bradley had the name of smokin'
better stuff than the average; but when they lit up and got a-goin',
Obed said you could see that the gang was s'prised and some disgusted.
The old man didn't take one at fust, but everybody else puffed away, and
the smoke and smell got thicker 'n' thicker. Obed said it reminded him
of a stable afire more 'n anything else. Pretty soon Bradley bit the end
of one of the things and touched a match to it. He puffed twice--Obed
swears 'twa'n't more'n that--and then he yelled for the boy.

"'For the Lord's sake!' he says, 'where'd you git them cigars?' Well,
it come out that the boy hadn't told who the cigars was for, and he'd
bought a box of the kind his brother that worked in the cotton mill
smoked. Obed said you'd ought to have seen Bradley's face when the
youngster handed him back seven dollars and seventy-five cents change."

They reached that part of Orham which is called the Neck, and pulled
up before a small building bearing the sign "So