Page:Sketches by Mark Twain.djvu/168

166 I felt easier. "Oh, if that is all, sir, I did do that."

"Yes, you did. I will read your answer, for your own humiliation:

"That is the way you answered that letter. Those people say they will hang me, if I ever enter that district again; and I am perfectly satisfied they will, too."

"Well, sir, I did not know I was doing any harm. I only wanted to convince them."

"Ah. Well you did convince them, I make no manner of doubt. Now, here is another specimen. I gave you a petition from certain gentleman of Nevada, praying that I would get a bill through Congress incorporating the Methodist Episcopal Church of the State of Nevada. I told you to say, in reply, that the creation of such a law came more properly within the province of the State Legislature; and to endeavour to show them that, in the present feebleness of the religious element in that new