the pirate is only a seedy, unfantastic "rough," when he is out of the

pictures.

Toward evening, the stage-coach came thundering into Hawkeye with a

perfectly triumphant ostentation--which was natural and proper, for

Hawkey a was a pretty large town for interior Missouri. Washington,

very stiff and tired and hungry, climbed out, and wondered how he was to

proceed now. But his difficulty was quickly solved. Col. Sellers came

down the street on a run and arrived panting for breath. He said:

Lord bless you--I'm glad to see you, Washington--perfectly delighted to

see you, my boy! I got your message. Been on the look-out for you.

Heard the stage horn, but had a party I couldn't shake off--man that's

got an enormous thing on hand--wants me to put some capital into it--and

I tell you, my boy, I could do worse, I could do a deal worse. No, now,

let that luggage alone; I'll fix that. Here, Jerry, got anything to do?

All right-shoulder this plunder and follow me. Come along, Washington.

Lord I'm glad to see you! Wife and the children are just perishing to

look at you. Bless you, they won't know you, you've grown so. Folks all

well, I suppose? That's good--glad to hear that. We're always going to

run down and see them, but I'm into so many operations, and they're not

things a man feels like trusting to other people, and so somehow we keep

putting it off. Fortunes in them! Good gracious, it's the country to

pile up wealth in! Here we are--here's where the Sellers dynasty hangs

out. Hump it on the door-step, Jerry--the blackest niggro in the State,

Washington, but got a good heart--mighty likely boy, is Jerry. And now I

The Gilded Age