Whereupon the Candidate would say. "That's all right, John, I don't expect you to. I can respect a man's convictions all right, I guess."
So they would part excellent friends, the Candidate saying as we moved off:
"That man, John Winter, is one of the straightest men in this whole county."
Then he would add—
"Now we'll just go into this house for a minute. There's a dirty pup in here that's one of our supporters."
My opinion of our own supporters went lower every day, and my opinion of the Liberal voters higher, till it so happened that I went one day to an old friend of mine who was working on the Liberal side. I asked him how he liked it.
"Oh, well enough!" he said, "as a sort of game. But in this constituency you've got all the decent voters; our voters are the lowest bunch of skunks I ever struck."
Just then a man passed in a buggy, and looked sourly at my friend the Liberal worker.
"Hullo, John!" he called, with a manufactured hilarity, "got the little mare out for a turn, eh?"
John grunted.