"But business, you know, Mr. Stanton, is a very jealous master." A Falstaff smile overspread his chubby, side-whiskered face as he spoke.
"Quite true," replied Hugh, "and it's my misfortune not to have met you before. I hope soon to form the acquaintance of every business man in Meade."
"That's where you're wrong," said Judge Lynn, as he shut one eye knowingly.
The judge was in many respects an odd-looking individual, with his round face and straggling side-whiskers, and Hugh instinctively said, at first sight, "Here is a character."
In the first place and chiefly, his appearance gave evidence that Kansas prohibition did not prohibit. His bloated face attested to this--his immensity of waist measurement added proof--his whiskey-dwindled legs were argument eloquent, while his alcoholic breath was conviction itself.
This was Judge Lynn,--good-natured, frank, easy-going, improvident, in debt to everybody, and still willing to borrow. Unendowed with wisdom--and yet ignorant as a child of the fact--a man whom everybody liked simply because there was no reason why he should be hated.
He knew every resident of Meade--in fact he knew every soul in the county and for miles beyond its borders--he also, in turn, was known. He was a pioneer of Kansas--came out from Indiana when very young, and in his years of residence in the Southwest had told people of his boyhood exploits on the banks of the Wabash. According to his own story he had been a great foot-racer--in fact, had never been beaten. The only evidence, however, of such athletic feats, came from his oft-repeated--even proverbial--assertions in regard to them.
He was a fixture on the streets of Meade, and had industriously whittled every dry-goods box in front of every store. He entered into political discussions, harmlessly; and there were even those who believed that he had convictions of his own.
He was a philanthropist in the way of giving good advice. Without solicitation he told the merchant how to conduct his business in order to reap the greatest results. He told the banker, in the same generous way, in whose hands it was safe to place loans. He would walk as far as a mile to inform cattlemen when to sell their herds.