When he arrived on the ground he found his friends unterrified; they were standing firmly by him and were full of courage.  Noble was working hard, too, but matters were against him, he was not making much progress.  Mr. Dilworthy took an early opportunity to send for Mr. Noble; he had a midnight interview with him, and urged him to forsake his evil ways; he begged him to come again and again, which he did.  He finally sent the man away at 3 o’clock one morning; and when he was gone, Mr. Dilworthy said to himself,

“I feel a good deal relieved, now, a great deal relieved.”

The Senator now turned his attention to matters touching the souls of his people.  He appeared in church; he took a leading part in prayer meetings; he met and encouraged the temperance societies; he graced the sewing circles of the ladies with his presence, and even took a needle now and then and made a stitch or two upon a calico shirt for some poor Bibleless pagan of the South Seas, and this act enchanted the ladies, who regarded the garments thus honored as in a manner sanctified.  The Senator wrought in Bible classes, and nothing could keep him away from the Sunday Schools—­neither sickness nor storms nor weariness.  He even traveled a tedious thirty miles in a poor little rickety stagecoach to comply with the desire of the miserable hamlet of Cattleville that he would let its Sunday School look upon him.

All the town was assembled at the stage office when he arrived, two bonfires were burning, and a battery of anvils was popping exultant broadsides; for a United States Senator was a sort of god in the understanding of these people who never had seen any creature mightier than a county judge.  To them a United States Senator was a vast, vague colossus, an awe inspiring unreality.

Next day everybody was at the village church a full half hour before time for Sunday School to open; ranchmen and farmers had come with their families from five miles around, all eager to get a glimpse of the great man—­the man who had been to Washington; the man who had seen the President of the United States, and had even talked with him; the man who had seen the actual Washington Monument—­perhaps touched it with his hands.

When the Senator arrived the Church was crowded, the windows were full, the aisles were packed, so was the vestibule, and so indeed was the yard in front of the building.  As he worked his way through to the pulpit on the arm of the minister and followed by the envied officials of the village, every neck was stretched and, every eye twisted around intervening obstructions to get a glimpse.  Elderly people directed each other’s attention and, said, “There! that’s him, with the grand, noble forehead!” Boys nudged each other and said, “Hi, Johnny, here he is, there, that’s him, with the peeled head!”