“A murderer? I haven’t forgotten the day when he hurried young Pat Flynn in the hay-field till the poor fellow dropped dead by the side of me with sun-stroke. I niver shall forget it in this world. And when David Baldwin, the Congressman, asked Sharp why did he hurry the lad such a hot day, wasn’t the old villain after saying it was liquor that killed him? And the poor lad never tasted liquor. If that wasn’t murder, what would yez call it? An awful poor memory yez have, all at once, Deacon Surface. “And ye’ve forgot, too, how old Sharp sold the dis’ased meat in the city, haven’t yez? Ye’ve forgot intirely how two children were killed by that same meat, so the doctors said? And that is what yez call a fine Christian gentleman in the First Church, is it?” “But the meat charge was never proved,” protested Deacon Surface. “And it’s yerself knows as well as anybody why it wasn’t proved--because Zach Baldwin wanted it hushed up. It can be proved to-day if John Wycliff and meself, and one other man I could name, were called as witnesses.” Deacon Surface realized that he was not gaining ground, and changed his tactics. “You had work on Congressman Baldwin’s new streets at Maple Heights, last fall, did you not?” “Indade I did, and I earned ivery cint I got, too, so I did, Deacon Surface.” “But there will be no work at Maple Heights this year unless Mr. Sharp is elected Selectman.” “Maple Heights may go to Perdition. I’ll not vote for old Jake Sharp if I niver get another day’s work from the Baldwins. The likes of yerself cannot drive Dave Moriarty one inch. Ye may stand there and threaten till doomsday. I’ll not vote for that slave-driver, Sharp. He ought to be behind the bars.” Deacon Surface moved on, to appeal to workmen who would “hear to reason,” as he expressed it. As for David Moriarty, he hurried over to his neighbor, John Wycliff, to tell him of this latest game of the Baldwins. He had barely left Wycliff’s, to return, when Hugh Maxwell called to see John Wycliff. This gentleman was fully as easy and gracious in his manner, fully as well qualified to get through the world without provoking opposition, as Deacon Surface; but, unlike the Deacon, he had to depend upon his own resources, with no millionaires to back him. He had a good business as a retail merchant, and in building up his trade had won many friends and very little enmity. Mere formalities over, Mr. Maxwell asked: “What would be my chances in a campaign against Jacob Sharp?”