up to London and had a long interview
with Mr. Potts, who to my surprise,
knew the whole state of the case far
better than I did, and who predicted, from
data which he had before him, that my
friend would come in at the head of the
poll by a small majority, if he would
not allow any bribery to be employed in
his behalf. There was, however, another
proviso, which did not augur so well
for my friend's success, which was that
the other side would be equally honest.
Mr. Potts hinted, very obscurely and
cautiously, and with a nervous glance
towards the door, that if my friend wanted
to be extra sure, and to have a triumphant
majority at the close of the poll, there was
but one way to accomplish the end—and
that was to apply for the aid of a gentleman
without a name.

"You mean the Man in the Moon?"
said I.

"Remember," replied Mr. Potts to this
abrupt question, "that I never mentioned
the Man in the Moon. I don't know such
a person—how should I? I was never in
the Moon, and never saw any one who had
been there, though I have had to do with
lunatics in my time. A nod's as good as a
wink, you know; and you say you want to
win, which is quite natural. I shall send
you a very able man to canvass for you,
and please don't ask me any more
questions."

Having returned to Great Lumpington
and reported progress at head-quarters,
my over-anxious friend the candidate, who
had made up his mind to be elected per
fas aut nefas, determined that we should
send for Mr. Potts's emissary to help us at
a pinch. It was to be a great secret. The
candidate himself was not to speak to, or
even to see, the mysterious personage
when he arrived in the borough. His
name was to be Jones, Robinson,
Montmorency, or anything else but his real
name. If he lodged at our hotel, the
candidate's supporters were not to take
much, if any, notice of him, unless on
special occasions, and if challenged about
him by the enemy, he was to be recognised
only as a paid canvasser, but not as an
agent, direct or indirect. As for myself, I
resolved to wash my hands of him
altogether, in a business point of view,
whatever might be the case socially, and to do
all I could to prevent my friend from
bribing and corrupting the pure-minded
and patriotic electors of Great
Lumpington.

On the day before the nomination the
Man in the Moon appeared, and called
himself Mr. Tompkins, and, strangely enough,
said he came from Norwich, which the
nursery legend associates with the
memory of the lunar personage who burnt
his mouth in that city. The candidate
held aloof and refused to see him; but he
and the accredited legal agent of my friend
had a long private interview, after which
the two came to my room and had lunch.
I did not know then, and never learned
since, what passed between them. I only
know, that, in common parlance, I took
stock of the Man in the Moon, and
surveyed him from top to toe with particular
interest.

He was a man, I should judge, of forty or
forty-five years of age, but at first glance
appeared to be younger. I soon came to
the conclusion that he had got himself up
for the occasion, and that when at home in
Norwich or elsewhere, his hair and beard
were of a different colour from that which
they now exhibited, if he wore such
appendages as beard and moustache at all,
when engaged in legitimate business, which
I very much doubted. He was not a
gentleman either by education or manners,
and in the matter of the unfortunate letter
"h," displayed a vulgarity, which the
Americans, when they desire to caricature
or disparage the English, proclaim to be
characteristic of every Englishman high or
low. He treated his h's as if they had no
right to exist at the commencement of any
word where the lexicographers had placed
them, and when he wanted to be emphatic
(or as he would have said hemphatic), he
persisted in making them the initials of every
word that ought properly to begin with a
vowel. His sense and logic, however, were
infinitely superior to his pronunciation and
his syntax; and he would have been a very
sharp practitioner indeed, who could
deceive Mr. Tompkins. The result of his
inquiries in the town, and of his deliberations
generally with himself, after a careful
inspection of the canvass books, was that
there was not the slightest occasion for his
services, and that the very profuse expenditure
of the Liberal candidate, and the
popularity he had acquired even among the
Conservatives of the town, would place him at
the head of the poll by a very large majority.
"Had it been a majority of four or five
only," said Mr. Tompkins, "there would a'
been danger, lest the other side might
have bought 'em all over, and put us on
the wrong side of the reckoning. But