"Yes, but it's the last time," said Jennings, who refused to smile. "We can't give this the go-by."
"Oh, well, now, neighbor Jennings, you mustn't take it too hard; you know these men are good capable men."
"They are capable enough," put in Deering, "but we want a change."
"Then make it," laughed Russell, good-naturedly defiant.
"We will make it, bet y'r boots," said Amos Ridings.
"Let's see yeh," was Russell's parting word, delivered with a jaunty wave of his hand.
The farmers rode home full of smoldering wrath. They were in fighting humor, and only needed an organizer to become a dangerous force.
The following Saturday Bradley, who was still at work with Milton, saw Amos Ridings gallop up and dismount at the gate, and call Jennings out, and during the next two hours, every time he looked up he saw them in deep discussion out by the pig pen. Part of the time Jennings faced Amos, who leaned against the fence and whittled a stick, and part of the time he talked to Jennings who leaned back against the fence on his elbows, and studied Amos whittling the rail. Mrs. Jennings at last called them all to dinner, and still the question remained apparently unsolved, though they changed the conversation to crops and the price of wheat.
"Brad, set down here and make a lot o' copies of this call. Milt, you help him."
A mass convention of the citizens of Rock County will be held at Rock Creek Grove on September 28th, for the purpose of nominating a people's ticket. All who favor reform in politics and rebel against the ring-rule of our county officers are invited to be present.
AMOS RIDINGS, JOHN JENNINGS, WILLIAM COUNCILL,
"What's all this?" asked Milton of his father.
"We're going to have a convention of our own."
"We're on the war path," said Amos grimly. "We'll make them fellers think hell's t' pay and no pitch hot."
After dinner Amos took a roll of the copies of the call and rode away to the north, and Jennings hitched up his team and drove away to the south. Milton and Bradley went back to their corn-husking, feeling that they were "small petaters."
"They don't intend to let us into it, that's dead sure," said Milton. "All the same, I know the scheme. They're going to bolt the convention, and there'll be fun in the air."