It was during the slack hours that our friend the senator, whose interest in the matter of the Brampton post office out-weighed for the present certain grave problems of the Administration in which he was involved, hurried into the Willard Hotel, looking for Jethro Bass. He found him without much trouble in his usual attitude, occupying one of the chairs in the corridor. "Well," exclaimed the senator, with a touch of eagerness he did not often betray, "did you see Grant? How about your old soldier? He's one of the most delightful characters I ever met--simple as a child," and he laughed at the recollection. "That was a masterstroke of yours, Bass, putting him under that tree with that pretty girl. I doubt if you ever did anything better in your life. Did they tell you about it?" "Yes," said Jethro, "they told me about it." "And how about Grant? What did he say to you?" "W-well, I went up there and sent in my card. D-didn't have to wait a great while, as I was pretty early, and soon he came in, smokin' a black cigar, head bent forward a little. D-didn't ask me to sit down, and what talkin' we did we did standin'. D-didn't ask me what he could do for me, what I wanted, or anything else, but just stood there, and I stood there. F-fust time in my life I didn't know how to commerce or what to say; looked--looked at me--didn't take his eye off me. After a while I got started, somehow; told him I was there to ask him to appoint Ephraim Prescott to the Brampton postoffice--t-told him all about Ephraim from the time he was locked in the cradle--never was so hard put that I could remember. T-told him how Ephraim shook butternuts off my fathers tree--for all I know. T-told him all about Ephraim's war record--leastways all I could call to mind--and, by Godfrey! before I got through, I wished I'd listened to more of it. T-told him about Ephraim's Wilderness bullets--t-told him about Ephraim's rheumatism,--how it bothered him when he went to bed and when he got up again." If Jethro had glanced at his companion, he would have seen the senator was shaking with silent and convulsive laughter.