“We may rejoice freely, now, my son—­Providence has crowned our efforts with success.”

CHAPTER XXV.

Washington sent grand good news to Col.  Sellers that night.  To Louise he wrote: 

“It is beautiful to hear him talk when his heart is full of thankfulness for some manifestation of the Divine favor.  You shall know him, some day my Louise, and knowing him you will honor him, as I do.”

Harry wrote: 

“I pulled it through, Colonel, but it was a tough job, there is no question about that.  There was not a friend to the measure in the House committee when I began, and not a friend in the Senate committee except old Dil himself, but they were all fixed for a majority report when I hauled off my forces.  Everybody here says you can’t get a thing like this through Congress without buying committees for straight-out cash on delivery, but I think I’ve taught them a thing or two—­if I could only make them believe it.  When I tell the old residenters that this thing went through without buying a vote or making a promise, they say, ’That’s rather too thin.’  And when I say thin or not thin it’s a fact, anyway, they say, ‘Come, now, but do you really believe that?’ and when I say I don’t believe anything about it, I know it, they smile and say, ’Well, you are pretty innocent, or pretty blind, one or the other—­there’s no getting around that.’  Why they really do believe that votes have been bought—­they do indeed.  But let them keep on thinking so.  I have found out that if a man knows how to talk to women, and has a little gift in the way of argument with men, he can afford to play for an appropriation against a money bag and give the money bag odds in the game.  We’ve raked in $200,000 of Uncle Sam’s money, say what they will—­and there is more where this came from, when we want it, and I rather fancy I am the person that can go in and occupy it, too, if I do say it myself, that shouldn’t, perhaps.  I’ll be with you within a week.  Scare up all the men you can, and put them to work at once.  When I get there I propose to make things hum.”  The great news lifted Sellers into the clouds.  He went to work on the instant.  He flew hither and thither making contracts, engaging men, and steeping his soul in the ecstasies of business.  He was the happiest man in Missouri.  And Louise was the happiest woman; for presently came a letter from Washington which said: 

“Rejoice with me, for the long agony is over!  We have waited patiently and faithfully, all these years, and now at last the reward is at hand.  A man is to pay our family $40,000 for the Tennessee Land!  It is but a little sum compared to what we could get by waiting, but I do so long to see the day when I can call you my own, that I have said to myself, better take this and enjoy life in a humble way than wear out our best days in this miserable separation.  Besides, I can put this money into