I am sure, what the people of my State will think of all this.
Perhaps they won't want a man for their Governor who once tried to
kill another man. But," he looked around at them with that smile of
his which got straight to men's hearts, "there's only one of me, and
there are three hundred of you, and how do I know but that in
telling you of that stretch of bad road ahead I've made a dozen
Governors this very afternoon!"

He looked from row to row of them, trying to think of some last word
which would leave them with a sense of his sincerity. What he did
say was: "And so, boys, when you get away from here, and go out into
the world to get your start, if you find the arms of that world
aren't quite as wide open as you were told they would be, if there
seems no place where you can get a hold, and you are saying to
yourself, 'It's no use--I'll not try,' before you give up just
remember there was one man who said he knew all about it, and give
that one man a chance to show he meant what he said. So look me up,
if luck goes all against you, and maybe I can give you a little
lift." He took a backward step, as though to resume his seat, and
then he said, with a dry little smile which took any suggestion of
heroics from what had gone before, "If I'm not at the State-house,
you'll find my name in the directory of the city where your
programme tells you I live."

He sat down, and for a moment there was silence. Then, full-souled,
heart-given, came the applause. It was not led by the attendants
this time; it was the attendants who rose at last to stop it. And
when the clapping of the hands had ceased, many of those hands were
raised to eyes which had long been dry.