pig-thief for a governor, you’d do it, wouldn’t you? You would if you’d been braggin’ ’family’ as Letitia has for the past three months. I saw her, turned on some of my convincin’ conversation, saw Pullet at his cousin’s and convinced him. They were married at Trinity parsonage this very forenoon."

"My! my! my!" I says, after this had really sunk in. "And the Pendlebury tree is—"

"There ain’t any Pendlebury tree," he interrupts. "It’s the kindlin’-bin for that shrub. But the Beanblossom tree, with governors and judges and generals proppin’ up every main limb, is goin’ to hang right next to Pa Pendlebury’s picture in the mornin’ room of Pendlebury Villa. And the head of Pendlebury Villa is the senior partner in the Ostable Grocery, Dry Goods, Boots and Shoes and Fancy Goods Store."He was wrong there. Letitia Pendlebury Beanblossom had another surprise under her bonnet and she sprung it when she got back. She sent for Jacobs and me and made proclamation that her husband would withdraw from the firm.

"I trust that Mr. Beanblossom and I are democratic," she says. "Of course we shall continue to purchase our supplies from you gentlemen. But, really," she says, "you _must_ see that a man whose ancestor by direct descent was Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony could scarcely humiliate himself by engaging in _trade_."

So, instead of gettin’ out of storekeepin’, I was left deeper in it than ever. But Jim Henry cheered me up by sayin’ I hadn’t really been in it at all yet.

"This foundlin’ is only beginnin’ to set up and take notice," he says. "Skipper, you put your faith in old Doctor Jacobs’ Teethin’ Syrup and Tonic for Business Infants."

"I guess that’s where it’s put," says I, drawin’ a long breath.

"It couldn’t be in a better place, could it? No, we’ve got a good start, but that’s all it is. Before I get through you’ll see. We’ve got to make this store prominent and keep it prominent, and the best way to do that is to be prominent ourselves. Skipper, I wish you’d go into politics."

"Politics!" says I, soon as I could catch my breath. "Well, when I do, I give you leave to order my room at the Taunton Asylum. What do you cal’late I’d better try to get elected to—President or pound-keeper?"

He laughed.

"Both of them jobs are filled at the present time," I went on, sarcastic. "So is 

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