“'Sh-h! Don't make a noise dear. You mustn't forget that your poor brother is sick and--” “Sick, is he? Well, I wish I--” “'Sh-h-h! Will you be quiet, Luigi! Here, now, take the rest of it--don't keep me holding the dipper all night. I declare if you haven't left a good fourth of it in the bottom! Come--that's a good-- “Aunt Betsy, don't make me! I feel like I've swallowed a cemetery; I do, indeed. Do let me rest a little--just a little; I can't take any more of the devilish stuff now.” “Luigi! Using such language here, and him just baptized! Do you want the roof to fall on you?” “I wish to goodness it would!” “Why, you dreadful thing! I've a good notion to--let that blanket alone; do you want your brother to catch his death?” “Aunt Betsy, I've got to have it off, I'm being roasted alive; nobody could stand it--you couldn't yourself.” “Now, then, you're sneezing again--I just expected it.” “Because I've caught a cold in my head. I always do, when I go in the water with my clothes on. And it takes me weeks to get over it, too. I think it was a shame to serve me so.” “Luigi, you are unreasonable; you know very well they couldn't baptize him dry. I should think you would be willing to undergo a little inconvenience for your brother's sake.” “Inconvenience! Now how you talk, Aunt Betsy. I came as near as anything to getting drowned you saw that yourself; and do you call this inconvenience?--the room shut up as tight as a drum, and so hot the mosquitoes are trying to get out; and a cold in the head, and dying for sleep and no chance to get any--on account of this infamous medicine that that assassin prescri--” “There, you're sneezing again. I'm going down and mix some more of this truck for you, dear.” CHAPTER IX. THE DRINKLESS DRUNK During Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the twins grew steadily worse; but then the doctor was summoned South to attend his mother's funeral, and they got well in forty-eight hours. They appeared on the street on Friday, and were welcomed with enthusiasm by the new-born parties, the Luigi and Angelo factions. The Luigi faction carried its strength into the Democratic party, the Angelo faction entered into a combination with the Whigs. The Democrats nominated Luigi for alderman under the new city government, and the Whigs put up Angelo against him. The Democrats nominated Pudd'nhead Wilson for mayor, and he was left alone in this glory, for the Whigs had no man who was willing to enter the lists against such a formidable opponent. No politician had scored such a compliment as this before in the history of the Mississippi Valley.