CHAPTER XIX--SQUIRE PHIN SEES AND REPLEVINS WHAT BELONGS TO HIM IN MANNER DECIDEDLY SUMMARY Then twice and thrice the youth’s parched lips Strive hard to frame the longed-for word; And twice and thrice he tries again, Yet not a single sound is heard. There’s just an upward flash of eyes Like starlight in a forest pool; She may have said, “Take heart, dear one!” She may have said, “Go on, thou fool!” --The “Quaker Wooing.” Some of the older voters in Palermo relate that once a constable obeyed the injunction to post a caucus call “in a public place” by sticking the paper on the wall under the roller towel in Asa Brickett’s store. It is further related that no one heard of that caucus until it was over, except the few chosen ones let into the secret. But the warrant for the annual town meeting in Palermo that March, done in the best roundhand of the second selectman, one copy tacked onto the townhouse door, another copy pasted up in the post-office, another nailed to the round centre post in Brickett’s store, received the careful attention of every voter. Each sheet was banded by several broad smooches that distinguished the articles in the warrant to which especial public interest attached. Each voter, as he read these, carefully ran his finger along the lines across the paper, so as not to miss a word, for it was understood that the new faction in town politics, captained by Hiram Look, had obtained the insertion of those articles. One was, “To see if the town will vote a sum of money for the support of the ‘Look Cornet Brass Band,’ or act anything thereto.” Popular interest in this measure was shown by a fair amount of discoloration on the paper. A deeper tint attached to Article 15: “To see if the town will vote to pay its floating indebtedness, statement of complete amount of same to be furnished the voters from his books by the town treasurer prior to the call for the ballot.” Article 16 was banded darkest of any. It was: “To see if the town will vote to oblige its treasurer to secure bonds acceptable to the selectmen.” The people discussed these articles freely, but only as evidence that Hiram Look was still busy at the working out of the old grudge against the Willard family. No hint that irregularities existed in Judge Willard’s accounts had been breathed. First of all, he had borrowed shrewdly from such men as Sumner Badger, who clung to their little money secrets desperately, secure in their faith in a Willard. Squire Phin Look was silent with the silence of a man who walks beneath an avalanche poised for its plunge, and realises all the danger.