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Harte, Bret, 1836-1902

"Drift from Two Shores"


"Your case has already been under advisement. The Secretary of
State, who is an intelligent man, is determined to recognize you as
de jure and de facto the only loyal representative of the
Patagonian government. You may safely proceed to Washington as its
envoy extraordinary. I dine with the secretary next week."
"And yourself, old fellow?"
"I only wish that twenty years from now you will recognize by your
influence and votes the rights of C. F. H. Golightly to the
presidency."
And here ends our story. Trusting that my dear young friends may
take whatever example or moral their respective parents and
guardians may deem fittest from these pages, I hope in future years
to portray further the career of those three young heroes I have
already introduced in the spring-time of life to their charitable
consideration.

THE MAN WHOSE YOKE WAS NOT EASY

He was a spare man, and, physically, an ill-conditioned man, but at
first glance scarcely a seedy man. The indications of reduced
circumstances in the male of the better class are, I fancy, first
visible in the boots and shirt; the boots offensively exhibiting a
degree of polish inconsistent with their dilapidated condition, and
the shirt showing an extent of ostentatious surface that is
invariably fatal to the threadbare waist-coat that it partially
covers.


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