In those days, however, it was a serious thing in this part of the world, and it worked against Hearn.
"We took him on, though, and I had such a sort of sympathy for the poor fellow, who looked as if he hadn't had a good meal in months, and who seemed to feel keenly the way the boys treated him, on account of his Republican ideas, and his queer appearance and all that, that I asked him to come up to our house to dinner — not once, but again and again — twice a week, for a good while.
"Just the other day, my wife was recalling the time he first came. Dressed in a blue coat, linen trousers, his coat buttoned up to the throat to hide his shirt — 'wasn't he an odd sight?' said my wife. And shy? Why, that first meal he just sat and crumbled his bread would scarcely eat a mouthful. Ours was a big family, and there were almost always
