"I remember when I was a boy over in Gentryville a shaggy, plain-dressed man rode up to the door one day. He had a cheerful, kindly face. His character began to speak to us before he opened his mouth to ask for a drink of water.
"'I don't know who you are,' my father said. 'But I'd like it awful well if you'd light an' talk to us.' He did and we didn't know till he had gone that he was the Governor of the state. A good character shines like a candle on a dark night. You can't mistake it. A firefly can't hold his light long enough to compete with it.
"Webster said in the Knapp trial: 'There is no evil that we can not either face or fly from but the consciousness of duty disregarded.'
"A great truth like that makes wonderful music on the lips of a sincere man. An orator must be a lover and discoverer of such unwritten laws."
It was nearing midnight when they heard footsteps on the board walk in front of the house. In a moment Harry Needles entered in cavalry uniform with fine top boots and silver spurs, erect as a young Indian brave and bronzed by tropic suns.
"Hello!" he said as he took off his belt and clanking saber. "I hang up my sword. I have had enough of war."
He had ridden across country from the boat landing and arriving so late had left his horse at a livery stable.
"I'm lucky to find you and Abe and Joe all up and waiting for me," he said as he shook their hands "How is mother?"
"I'm well," Sarah called from the top of the stairway. "I'll be down in a minute."
For an hour or more they sat by the fireside while Harry told of his adventures in the great swamps of Southern Florida.