Aunt Jane's Nieces at Work
The lawyer had accomplished more than
the other two, for he had secured a paper exonerating Lucy Rogers and
another incriminating the Honorable Erastus Hopkins, as well as the
sixty dollars paid by Tom Gates. The dentist was thoroughly frightened,
but determined, now that the conspiracy was defeated, that the man who
had led him to the crime should not escape in case he was himself
arrested. So he made a plain statement of the whole matter and signed
it, and Mr. Watson assured Squiers immunity from arrest, pending good
behavior. The man had already cashed Hopkins's check, and he knew the
Representative could not get the money away from him, so after all the
dentist lost nothing by the exposure.
It was a jolly party that assembled at the dinner-table in Elmhurst that
evening.
"You see," explained Uncle John, "the thing looked as big as a balloon
to us at first; but it was only a bubble, after all, and as soon as we
pricked it--it disappeared."
CHAPTER XXI
THE "RETURNS" FROM FAIRVIEW
Election day dawned sunny and bright; but there was a chill in the air
that betokened the approach of winter.
Uncle John had suggested serving coffee to the voters at the different
polling places, and Kenneth had therefore arranged for a booth at each
place, where excellent coffee was served free all day long. These booths
were decorated with Forbes banners and attracted a great deal of
comment, as the idea was a distinct innovation in this district.
"You wouldn't catch Hopkins giving anything away," remarked one farmer
to another. "'Rast is too close-fisted."
"Why, as fer that," was the reply, "the thing is done to catch votes.
You know that as well as I do."
"S'pose it is," said the first speaker. "I'd ruther my vote was caught
by a cup of hot coffee on a cold day, than by nothin' at all. If we've
got to bite anyhow, why not take a hook that's baited?"
Patsy and Beth made the rounds of the polling places in an automobile
covered with flags and bunting, and wherever they appeared they were
greeted with cordial cheers.
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There was once an honest journeyman tailor, by name Labakan, who learned his trade with an excellent master in Alexandria. It could not be said that Labakan was unhandy with the needle; on the contrary, he could make excellent work: moreover, one would have done him injustice to have called him lazy. Nevertheless, his companions knew not what to make of him, for he would often sew for hours together so rapidly that the needle would glow in his hand, and the thread smoke, and that none could equal him.
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