He was about to dismiss the visitors, but John Harmon coughed; John Harmon looked very red. John Harmon was perspiring very profusely. The truth is, among the last letters on the list, he found recorded the identical one, containing the twenty dollar bank note, which Blake was charged with purloining! What to do in the matter, John Harmon was at a loss to know. After some hesitation, however, he asked permission to glance once more at the list. He was accommodated, and presently his finger rested on the important entry. "I declare," said he, "if there ain't a letter I mailed at Harrowfork! I had no idea of finding it here! Can I get it now, by proving property?" "It has already been returned to your address," answered the clerk, on learning the circumstances. "You will find it on your return to Harrowfork. It miscarried in consequence of a mistake in the superscription." "Are you sure it has been sent?" inquired John Harmon. The clerk was quite sure, and John Harmon instantly withdrew. "So there's one of your charges agin Blake knocked overboard," suggested Wilcox. "He'll be a little grain tickled to see that 'ere letter come back, I s'pect!" "No person," answered John Harmon, magnanimously, "no person in the world can be more rejoiced than I am, that Blake is proved innocent of the charge." Wilcox replied that he was very glad to hear it; and so they parted to meet again at dinner. Whether John Harmon was so greatly rejoiced at the proof of Blake's innocence, will be seen in the sequel. While the Down Easter went to see the lions about town, our delegate found his way to the apartment of the Post Master General, and inquired for that officer in a manner which said very plainly, "I am John Harmon, of Harrowfork; and I guess now we'll have that little post-office affair settled." Unfortunately--or rather fortunately, for his own peace of mind, at least, the Post Master General was engaged that morning at Cabinet meeting at the White House, and John Harmon was referred to the First Assistant, who listened patiently to his statement. Our delegate had a speech prepared for the occasion, which he now declaimed in a very high tone of voice, "with a swaggering accent, sharply twanged off," as Sir Toby Belch would have said, and with vehement and abundant gestures. "I am instructed by my constituents," he said, in conclusion, "to demand of the Department satisfactory reasons for the delay and procrastination to which we have been obliged tamely to submit!" "You should consider," politely returned the Assistant, "that Harrowfork numbers only one among some twenty-four thousand post-offices in the Union; and that it is a little unreasonable to expect us to bear in mind all the details of an occasional and not uncommon case. We will attend to your business, however, directly."