At Secretary E.'s on the next evening, a crowd surrounded the Judge, but all wore upon their countenances an air of incredulity--the Judge's story of the "factory girl" "wouldn't go down."
"It's a fact, ladies," said the Judge; "just about the time I was learning to make shoes these people were in the situations I tell you."
They all pronounced the Judge a wag, and would not believe the story. A matron, more resolved than her friends to sift the truth of the matter, applied to Mrs. H., herself, and told her what a _fib_ the Judge had been telling them.
"I assure you it is true," replied Mrs. H.
"Yes, but my dear, the best of families have been reduced," says Mrs. Enquiry, "you are, no doubt, descended from the 'Pilgrim Fathers.'"
"I have every reason to believe so," answered Mrs. H. "I told you so," said Mrs. Enquiry, exultingly, to her circle of acquaintances; "she is a daughter of one of the 'Pilgrim Fathers.'"
The wheels of government, which had well nigh ceased to move during the pendency of this important question, received a new impetus from the intelligence, and the republic was pronounced "out of danger," for its "heads of wisest censure" had discovered _who they were!_--
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Swamp Doctor's Adventures in The South-West, by John Robb