WHEN UNCLE HANNIBAL SPOKE AT THE CHAPEL For a month or more the old Squire had looked perplexed.

Two of his lifelong friends were rival candidates for the senatorship from Maine, and each had expressed the hope that the old Squire would aid him in his canvass.

Both candidates knew that many of the old Squire's friends and neighbors looked to him for guidance in political matters.

Without seeming to express personal preference, the old Squire could not choose between them, for both were statesmen of wide experience and in every way good men for the office.
The first was Hannibal Hamlin, who had been Vice-President with Abraham Lincoln in 1861-1865: "Uncle Hannibal," as we young people at the farm always called him after that memorable visit of his, when we ate "fried pies" together.

He had been Senator before the Civil War, and also Governor of Maine; now, after the war, in 1868, he had again been nominated for the senatorship under the auspices of the Republican party.
The other candidate, the Hon.