don't see how I could have done differently. I certainly thought I was
doing right."

"An' so yez were," shouted Dennis. "An' if that dirty beast Kennedy
shows his dirty face inside these doors, it's a washin' it will get wid
the drainin' av the beer-glasses. We wants none av his dirty bargains
here."

"I don't know that he had made any bargain," said Peter.

"But we do," shouted one of the men. "It's a bargain he's always
makin'."

"Yes," said Dennis. "It's Kennedy looks out for himself, an' we'll let
him do it next time all by himself." It could not be traced to its
origin, but in less than a week the consensus of opinion in the ward was
that: "Kennedy voted for himself, but Stirling for us."

The ward, too, was rather proud of the celebrity it had achieved. The
papers had not merely paragraphed Peter, and the peculiar position of
the "district" in the convention, but they had begun now asking
questions as to how the ward would behave. "Would it support Catlin?"
"Was it true that the ward machine had split, and intended to nominate
rival tickets?" "Had one faction made a deal with the Republicans?"

"Begobs," said Dennis, "it's the leaders an' the papers are just afther
discoverin' there is a sixth ward, an' it's Misther Stirling's made them
do it."

The chief party leaders had stayed over at Saratoga, but Peter had a