Laura dressed and went out, thinking she was perhaps too early for Mr. Buckstone to come from the house, but as he lodged near the bookstore she would drop in there and keep a look out for him.

While Laura is on her errand to find Mr. Buckstone, it may not be out of the way to remark that she knew quite as much of Washington life as Senator Dilworthy gave her credit for, and more than she thought proper to tell him.  She was acquainted by this time with a good many of the young fellows of Newspaper Row; and exchanged gossip with them to their mutual advantage.

They were always talking in the Row, everlastingly gossiping, bantering and sarcastically praising things, and going on in a style which was a curious commingling of earnest and persiflage.  Col.  Sellers liked this talk amazingly, though he was sometimes a little at sea in it—­and perhaps that didn’t lessen the relish of the conversation to the correspondents.

It seems that they had got hold of the dry-goods box packing story about Balloon, one day, and were talking it over when the Colonel came in.  The Colonel wanted to know all about it, and Hicks told him.  And then Hicks went on, with a serious air,

“Colonel, if you register a letter, it means that it is of value, doesn’t it?  And if you pay fifteen cents for registering it, the government will have to take extra care of it and even pay you back its full value if it is lost.  Isn’t that so?”

“Yes.  I suppose it’s so.”.

“Well Senator Balloon put fifteen cents worth of stamps on each of those seven huge boxes of old clothes, and shipped that ton of second-hand rubbish, old boots and pantaloons and what not through the mails as registered matter!  It was an ingenious thing and it had a genuine touch of humor about it, too.  I think there is more real:  talent among our public men of to-day than there was among those of old times—­a far more fertile fancy, a much happier ingenuity.  Now, Colonel, can you picture Jefferson, or Washington or John Adams franking their wardrobes through the mails and adding the facetious idea of making the government responsible for the cargo for the sum of one dollar and five cents?  Statesmen were dull creatures in those days.  I have a much greater admiration for Senator Balloon.”

“Yes, Balloon is a man of parts, there is no denying it”

“I think so.  He is spoken of for the post of Minister to China, or Austria, and I hope will be appointed.  What we want abroad is good examples of the national character.

“John Jay and Benjamin Franklin were well enough in their day, but the nation has made progress since then.  Balloon is a man we know and can depend on to be true to himself.”

“Yes, and Balloon has had a good deal of public experience.  He is an old friend of mine.  He was governor of one of the territories a while, and was very satisfactory.”