“ On the way to Washington the face of the boy once obtruded itself before busy mind of the statesman, who most smiled with a grim humor at recollection of his hasty command, "Throw them back again!" He could hear his neighbors saying: "There's Seth Higby for you! No other man on earth would have thought of setting a boy such a stint to teach him discipline and keep him busy." ”

“ With youthful bounds the father—not the statesman—sped up the path, hid by trees and undergrowth, and came out by the clump of choke-cherries a few rods from the Tower. He might have secretly watched the builder struggling to fit the last rebellious stones into the rude rampart of the Tower had not the alert Thorn given a warning bark just as Stephen was struggling to wedge a heavy stone into its place. Instantly the boy's white face lifted, his eyes caught the silent figure of the Honorable—and the stone slipped. ”

“ As he neared the main-line station the Honorable Seth Higby's smooth, distinguished face shone with a mellow satisfaction that was almost joy—a look that caused a fellow-passenger to remark to his seat-mate:
"He looks real pleasant to-day—the Honorable Seth—if he is a Tartar when he's riled—and no end of smart! When I hear anybody talk about gentlemen, I always kinder hark back in my mind to the Honorable. He's the smartest man this district ever raised, an' he cuts a big swath down to Washington." ”

“ Thorn's ears rose belligerently, and a series of crisp, sharp barks announced that he was in keen sympathy with his comrade's new attitude of defiance. If the Honorable Seth Higby could have heard Stephen's declaration of revolt, his astonishment would have been greater than if the President of the United States and the chosen comrades of his political camp had suddenly read him out of the party and berated him as he had berated the "Cracker-box Brigade" from Beasley's store. ”

“ And suddenly catching sight of the white face, the blazing eyes, and the half-shut lips of the Honorable Seth Higby, as he appeared under the arbor arch, he added, with the cruel frankness of childhood: "And I'm going home to-day. I don't want any more stone-picking. My back aches now."
"Don't—don't go—not yet!" pleaded Stephen. "Mebby he'll let us—"
"Naw, he won't, either!" interrupted the city cousin. "He believes that boys must work all the time. I heard him tell that to mother. ”

“ In the moment of silence before the angry and abashed delegation began to file out of the arbor, Stephen confided to his visiting cousin:
"I've decided that when I grow up and it comes my turn I'm not going to be a—a Honorable. You have to talk so hard to folks." ”

“ The task of laying the foundations of his tower was so splendidly exciting that for hours at a time he worked joyously, fearlessly, without a thought of his defiance against the authority of the Honorable.
"We must go slow," he kept repeating to Thorn, "and get the right start." ”

“ Stephen had spent too many hours watching the masons laying the walls of the new stone barn not to know that the strength of his structure depended upon the strength of its base.
"The big stones first," he confided to his bristling comrade, "and at the outside. Flattish ones if we can find 'em. We've got to go careful and lay 'em tight or it 'll tumble. But we don't have to dig. The big, flat rock 'll hold a tower as high as the walnut." ”

“ He was not raising up a lawless, shiftless, and pampered youth to disgrace the Higby name and add a new recruit to the ranks of impertinent young social upstarts that were a standing offense to all well-reared and useful men. ”

“ There are just three men of you who have ever been across the State line and only six of you have ever been outside the county. When I want advice from constituents on international affairs, I'll take it from those whom I regard as more competent to offer it than yourselves. ”