The Lost Hunter Part 52

We had almost forgotten to speak of the fate of Constable Ba.s.set. The good people of Hillsdale soon found out that his talents did not lie in the line he had adopted, and, at the next election, chose another in his place. Thereupon, not discouraged, he turned his hand, with national facility, to something else--following, successively, the business of a small grocer, of a tavern keeper, and of an auctioneer.

Somehow or other, however, ill luck still followed him; and, finally, he took to distributing the village newspaper, and sticking up handbills. This gave him a taste for politics, and having acquired, in his employment as auctioneer, a certain fluency of speech, he cultivated it to that degree--in town meetings and on other public occasions--that, in the end, there was not a man in the whole county who could talk longer and say less. His fellow-citizens observing this congressional qualification, and not knowing what else he was fit for, have just elected him to Congress, partly because of this accomplishment, and, partly, on account of his patriotic dislike of "furriners," a sentiment which happens now to be popular. Both his friends and enemies agree that he is destined to make a figure there; and Mr. Thomas Armstrong--in compensation, perhaps, for a youthful trick--has promised the Member of Congress a new hat and full suit of black broadcloth, to enable him to appear in proper style on Pennsylvania Avenue.

THE END