"'Ya-a-as,' says I. He looked at me a minute, but Lord! How was a
poor Mormon to hold suspicions? So he goes on.

"'At first,' he says, 'you might git the idee there was somethin'
jubeeous in these preceedin's, but there ain't. I knew a man that
once upon a time was the honestest man ever lived. Honest? Why,
I've known that man to go to bed weepin', he felt so bad to learn
George Washington stole a march on the enemy. "I never would have
believed it of George if it hadn't been in the book," he says.
That's the kind of a man he was--just your sort to a dot. Well,
sir, he has an honest claim agin these United States for damage and
raisin' the divil with his farm durin' the Civil War. And do you
suppose these here United States, _E Pluribus Unum_, In God We
Trust, paid that bill? Not on the tintype of your grandfather.
When he goes to Washington with it, the President he says, "Now,
I'd pay you this in a minute, Billy," he says, "but think of them
Congressmen!" and the President he shakes his head and Billy comes
home again. And from that time on, before his very eyes, he has to
see his widder and eighteen helpless children die of starvation
through not havin' enough to eat, right in front of his face--ain't
that fierce?' says he.

"'Ya-a-as,' says I.

"'Well, at last this man gets a job in the Treasury; it didn't pay
much--just enough to live on. He had charge of the banknotes
before the Secretary signs 'em, to make good. Now, here comes in
the curious part of it: my friend's handwritin' and the Secretary's
handwritin' was that much alike neither man could tell one from
t'other. This gives my friend the idee of how to break even with