“We have done without many a thing we ort to a had tryin to keep our payments up, hopin that our old age might be spent here among our neighbors; but every year since we bought the farm times have got harder, prices lower and money scarcer. “We have raised good crops, Jobe has worked hard, and now, arter all the years of hard work and good crops, we have $512 less than we had when we bought the farm seventeen years ago. “They kept a tellin Jobe that it was ‘better to have less money and lower prices than to have more money and higher prices,’ and Jobe and his likes have kept a votin for the fellers that told him sich until to-day he is sick and sold out. “He has done the votin and the other fellers has got the money. They held the bag, and Jobe and his likes poured in the grain.” “Well, Betsy,” says Bill, studyin like, “Ive about made up my mind that none of us farmers have much to show for our past votin. It looks as though, while we have been workin hard nite and day, economizin and savin; while we have been a tryin to lay up somethin for ourselves in old age, and for our children; while we have been doin all this, and doin the votin, there has been a lot of schemers and rascals seekin office and gittin laws made to redeem one kind of money in another, and then cornerin the redeemin kind, and contractin and destroyin this kind and that, even issuin bonds on us to git it to burn, and doin everything so they would be able to take from us what we were a raisin and savin.” [Illustration: “‘Ile tell you, Betsy. Ive made up my mind to try them Populists hereafter.’”] Then, leanin over on his horse, says he: “Betsy, step up closer to the fence.” I walked out to the fence. Says he, whisperin like: “Ile tell you, Betsy. Ive made up my mind to try them Populists hereafter. I see they have some purty smart men in the United States Senate. But for the life of you, Betsy, dont say anything to any one about my changin.” I jist stepped back a step or two and looked at Bill Bowers for a whole minit. He looked at me. Then says I: “Bill Bowers, I am surprised! I am surprised that you, a full-blooded American citizen, a grown-up man, a man who has made up his mind to do what he believes to be right, and then hasent the manhood to let the world know that you are independent, but are afraid that some officeseeker or polertician who lives off of you will turn up his nose at you! Bill Bowers, I thought you had more firmness in you than that. If the party you have been votin for has betrayed you, if the officeseekers you have helped to elect have used you as a tool, haint it your dooty as a man and a citizen to let it be known that you are a goin to quit the gang? Instid of bein afraid of them, you should make them afraid of you. Thats your dooty, Bill.” “Well, Betsy,” says he, “I dont know but what youre right, but Ide ruther you wouldent say anything about it.” Then, changin the subject, says he: “Betsy, where do you think of goin to?”