This was the first intimation I had had of his being a hero of the Mexican war.  Regaining his good humor soon after, I resigned him the reins, and he desired me to tell him at what point of his story he had been interrupted.  Having done this, he resumed its thread as old Battle jogged on at his usual slow pace.  “I now took up the trade of politics,” he continued, “and went about the country, making speeches and demolishing everything that came in my way.  I had ideas enough for any number of speeches, no matter what the length might be; but the evil was how to put the sentences together.  I could make points such as Cicero and Lycurgus never thought of; as for patriotism, there was no trouble about that.  I had a dozen platforms at my fingers’ ends, and could move an audience equal to Lamartine.  Here then was my game, and at it I made a nice thing.  The editor of the “Provincetown Longbow,” who was celebrated for making at least two Cabinet ministers a day, declared to his readers that it was lucky for the era that my great wisdom had been discovered; that it would be a great wrong in General Harrison to offer me any less office than Secretary of State.  The “Barnstable Pocketbook,” a clever little sheet, edited by Miss Holebrook, who snapped her political whip in the teeth of the town, and had come off conqueror in many a tilt with editors in breeches, was willing to compromise with he of the Longbow, by assuring its readers that only two years’ study of law would make me an excellent judge of the Supreme Court.  These well bestowed encomiums, (as I think they are called,) so elated my wife that she speedily took to giving tea parties, to which all the majors and generals of the town were invited.  And as they demolished the hospitality of her teacups they made her believe the nation never could get along unless I had two fingers in its affairs.

“My children, before as distasteful as the butter one gets in New York hotels, were now so sweet that the whole town wanted to kiss them.  And the parson, who had scarcely been known to say, ’how do you do, Mrs. Potter,’ now made his calls so frequent, and his bows so gracious, that the neighbors said it would be as well to have an eye out.  I got fifteen dollars and my feed, for each speech.  Now and then an inspired soul threw in an extra five.  So that at the end of two months I had funds enough to establish a bank in Wall street, with three branches in the country.  My credit, too, received an unlimited extension.  And this my wife took advantage of to new furnish the house and haberdash the little Potters.  I contented myself with drawing on the tailor for two suits of his best broadcloth, such as would appertain to a politician so distinguished.  But in truth I must confess, without blushing, that my wife was not long in contracting debts a richer man would have found difficulty in paying.

“However, having cleared away all doubts and elected Harrison, whom I was careful to see safe into the arms of the people, my friends all advised me to set out for Washington, where such abilities as I had discovered could not fail of being rewarded by the government they had so ably served.