"Would you have her sign our petition?" asked the Colonel, innocently.

Harry laughed. "Women don't get anything by petitioning Congress; nobody

does, that's for form. Petitions are referred somewhere, and that's the

last of them; you can't refer a handsome woman so easily, when she is

present. They prefer 'em mostly."

The petition however was elaborately drawn up, with a glowing description

of Napoleon and the adjacent country, and a statement of the absolute

necessity to the prosperity of that region and of one of the stations on

the great through route to the Pacific, of the immediate improvement of

Columbus River; to this was appended a map of the city and a survey of

the river. It was signed by all the people at Stone's Landing who could

write their names, by Col. Beriah Sellers, and the Colonel agreed to have

the names headed by all the senators and representatives from the state

and by a sprinkling of ex-governors and ex-members of congress. When

completed it was a formidable document. Its preparation and that of more

minute plots of the new city consumed the valuable time of Sellers and

Harry for many weeks, and served to keep them both in the highest

spirits.

In the eyes of Washington Hawkins, Harry was a superior being, a man who

was able to bring things to pass in a way that excited his enthusiasm.

He never tired of listening to his stories of what he had done and of

what he was going to do. As for Washington, Harry thought he was a man

201

The Gilded Age