university was the prominence of Lige Bemis in the town. When John
left Sycamore Ridge to go to school, Bemis was a drunken sign-painter
married to a woman who a few years before had been the scandal of half
a dozen communities. And now though Mrs. Bemis was still queen only of
the miserable unpainted Bemis domicile in the sunflowers at the edge
of town, Lige Bemis politically was a potentate of some power. General
Hendricks consulted Bemis about politics. Often he was found in the
back room of the bank, and Colonel Culpepper, although he was an
unterrified Democrat, in his campaign speeches referred to Bemis as "a
diamond in the rough." John was sitting on a roll of leather one day
in Watts McHurdie's shop talking of old times when Watts recalled the
battle of Sycamore Ridge, and the time when Bemis came to town with
the Red Legs and frightened Mrs. Barclay.

"Yes--and now look at him," exclaimed John, "dressed up like a
gambler, and referred to in the _Banner_ as 'Hon. E. W. Bemis'! How
did he do it?"

McHurdie sewed two or three long stitches in silence. He leaned over
from his bench to throw his tobacco quid in the sawdust box under the
rusty stove, then the little man scraped his fuzzy jaw reflectively
with his blackened hand as if about to speak, but he thought better of
it and waxed his thread. He showed his yellow teeth in a smile, and
motioned John to come closer. Then he put his head forward, and
whispered confidentially:--

"What'd you ruther do or go a-fishing?"

"But why?" persisted the young man.