and that she did not think he would teach him anything bad.
He has, I find myself, notions of honor, though they are rather
the code of the street. And he picks up things quickly.
Once he came to tea. It was amusing to see how he glued his
eyes on Harry and kept time with his motions. He used his fork
quite properly, only as Harry is a left-handed little fellow,
the right-handed Thomas had the more difficulty.

"He is taking such vast pains with his 'oration' that I felt
moved to help him. The subject is 'The Triumph of Democracy,'
and Tommy civilly explained that 'democracy' did not mean
the Democratic party, but 'just only a government where all
the poor folks can get their rights and can vote.'

"The oration was the kind of spread-eagle thing you might expect;
I can see that Tommy has formed himself on the orators of his
father's respectable saloon. What he said in comment interested
me more. 'Sure, I guess it is the best government, ma'am, though,
of course, I got to make it out that way, anyhow. But we come
from Ireland, and there they got the other kind, and me granny,
she starved in the famine time, she did that--with the fever.
Me father walked twenty mile to the Sackville's place, where they
gave him some meal, though he wasn't one of their tenants;
yes, and the lady told him how he would be cooking it.
I never will forget that lady!'

"I saw a dramatic opportunity: would Tommy be willing to tell
that story in his speech? He looked at me with an odd look--
or so I imagined it! 'Why not?' says he; 'I'd as soon as not tell it
to anyone of them, and why not to them all together?' Well, why not,