Then Patsy went over to the general store, and there she met her first rebuff.  Thompson, the proprietor, was a sour-visaged man, tall and lanky and evidently a dyspeptic.  Having been beaten by Hopkins at the last election, when he ran against him on the Republican ticket, Thompson had no desire to see Forbes more successful than he had been himself.  And there were other reasons that made it necessary for him to support Hopkins.

So he was both gruff and disagreeable when Patsy, after buying a lot of ribbons of him, broached the subject of politics.  He told her plainly that her cousin hadn’t a “ghost of a show,” and that he was glad of it.

“The young fool had no business to monkey with politics,” he added, “and this will teach him to keep his fingers out of someone else’s pie.”

“It isn’t Mr. Hopkins’s pie,” declared Patsy, stoutly.  “It belongs to whoever gets the votes.”

“Well, that’s Hopkins.  He knows the game, and Forbes don’t.”

“Can’t he learn?” asked the girl.

“No.  He’s an idiot.  Always was a crank and an unsociable cuss when a boy, and he’s worse now he’s grown up.  Oh, I know Forbes, all right; and I haven’t got no use for him, neither.”

Argument was useless in this case.  The girl sighed, gathered up her purchases, and went into the hardware store.

Immediately her spirits rose.  Here was a man who knew Kenneth, believed in him and was going to vote for him.  She had a nice talk with the hardware man, and he gave her much useful information about the most important people in the neighborhood—­those it would be desirable to win for their candidate.  When he mentioned Thompson, she said: 

“Oh, he’s impossible.  I’ve talked with him.”

“Thompson is really a good Republican,” replied Mr. Andrews, the hardware man.  “But he’s under Hopkins’s thumb and doesn’t dare defy him.”

“Doesn’t he like Mr. Hopkins?” asked Patsy, in surprise.

“No; he really hates him.  You see, Thompson isn’t a very successful merchant.  He has needed money at times, and borrowed it of Hopkins at a high rate of interest.  It’s a pretty big sum now, and Hopkins holds a mortgage on the stock.  If he ever forecloses, as he will do some day, Thompson will be ruined.  So he’s obliged to shout for Hopkins, whether he believes in him or not.”

“I think I understand him now,” said Patsy, smiling.  “But he needn’t have been so disagreeable.”

“He’s a disagreeable man at any time,” returned Mr. Andrews.

“Has he any political influence?” asked the girl.

“Yes, considerable.  Otherwise he couldn’t have secured the nomination when he pretended to run against Hopkins—­for it was only a pretense.  You see, he’s a well known Republican, and when he sides for Hopkins he’s bound to carry many Republicans with him.”

But there were other important people whom Mr. Andrews thought might be influenced, and he gave Patsy a list of their names.  He seemed much amused at the earnestness of this girlish champion of the Republican candidate.