"Bless you, Strong, I sha'n't say a word disrespectful to her. This is something you'd ought to know. He just did up a 'Clarion' with some notice about the school in it, and her name marked, and sent it to that fellow you used to write to; and he wrote on the margin: 'Please forward to Miss N.'s friends.' He said in the bar-room, to-day, that he didn't know just what would come of it, but it stood to reason if she was on the hide, it would damage her or you, somehow." "It hasn't, however," said Strong. "But if _I_ stayed round the bar-room--" "Oh, we choked him off. I tell you, Strong, everybody thinks it was a pretty dirty trick. The people don't care so much about his big tricks, but they won't stand any such small ones. No money in it, either--only spite! Well, the long and the short is--it's only a few weeks till convention; and if you'll take hold now while they're mad, you can name your own man for Senate, and we'll send you to Assembly." "I don't want to go to Assembly," said Will, standing on his office-step. "I'll gladly do my best to defeat Garvey for Senate." "Well, you just decide on your man, and bring him out in your next paper and we'll elect him. The people are strong for you just now. And I should think you would look on going to Assembly as a sort of duty--purify politics, you know." "Well--I'll think about it." And young Strong walked into his shabby office, stopped to give Jim directions, then went in behind his screen, and sat down to write a proper editorial for beginning the reform campaign. HOW OLD WIGGINS WORE SHIP. AN OLD SAILOR'S YARN. BY CAPTAIN ROLAND T. COFFIN. _The World, N. Y., November, 1878._