"Besides, think of the masses of fosterin' crime he would be a-pressin' back and a-turnin' into good, pure influences to bless the world! And besides, the oncounted gain to Heaven and earth! Uncle Sam would git the two-cent mortgages back a dozen times in the increase of taxable property." The Governor murmured agin that he wuz wanted to once, in a distant part of the city--he must start for California imegatly, and on the next train. Sez he incoherently, "That school wuz about to open; he must be to the University to once." He wuz nearly delirious--I spoze he wuz nearly overcome by my remarkable eloquence, but don't know. But as he sot off, a-movin' backward in a polite way but swift, entirely onbeknown to him he come up aginst a big tree, and with a hopeless look of resignation he leaned up aginst it, while I, a-feelin' that Providence had interfered to give me another chance at him, advanced onwards, and sez to him in a real eloquent way, "That bill will do more than any amount of beggin', or jawin', or preachin', towards keepin' the boys to hum on the old deserted farms that are so thick in the country; and," sez I, "now that bill has fell out of his hands, I want you to take it up and pass it on to success." Sez I, "Let Uncle Sam and you go out, as I have, in the country byroads in Jonesville, and Loontown, and Zoar, and you'll both gin in that I'm a-tellin' the truth." Sez I, "If it hain't a pitiful sight in one short mornin's ride to go by more'n a dozen of them poor deserted old homes, as I have many a time, and I spoze they lay jest as thick scattered all over the State and country as they do round Jonesville." Sez I, "To see them old brown ruffs a-humpin' themselves up jest as lonesome-lookin' and cold--no smoke a-comin' out of the chimblys to cheer 'em up--to see the bare winders a-facin' the west, and no bright eyes a-lookin' out, nor curly locks for the sunlight to git tangled in--to see the poor old door-step a-settin' there alone, as if a-tellin' over its troubles to the front gate, and that a-creakin' back to it on lonesome nights or cold, fair mornin's-- "And the old well-sweep a-pintin' up into the sky overhead, as if a-callin' Heaven to witness that it wuzn't to blame for the state of things-- "And the apple trees, with low swingin' branches, with no bare brown feet to press on 'em on the way up to the robin's nest overhead--empty barns, ruins, weedy gardens, long, lonesome stretches of paster and medder lands-- "Why, if Uncle Sam could look on sech sights, and have me right by him to tell him the reason on't--to tell him that two thousand dollars lent on easy interest would turn every one of them worthless, decayin' pieces of property into beautiful, flourishin', prosperous homes, he'd probable feel different about passin' the bill from what he duz now-- [Illustration: "If Uncle Sam could have me right by him to tell him the reason."]