Whoever had made the
locks on the doors of the houses had been content to use
the same pattern for all. It proved, therefore, that the
key of No. 237 answered for No. 238, and it was not
necessary to open the door with the "Jimmy" which Simeon
had under his ulster.
But on the other hand, to Frederick's amazement, as
he threw the door open, he found a lighted room and a
long table around which sat twelve men, guised or
disguised in much the same way as those whom he had
brought with him. A few moments showed that another
leader of the people had discovered this vacant home a
few weeks before, and had established there another
settlement of the un-homed. As it proved, this gentleman
was a Mashpee Indian. He was, in fact, the member of the
House of Representatives from the town of Mashpee for the
next winter. Arriving in Boston to look for
lodgings, he, not unnaturally, met with a Mohawk, two
Dacotahs, and a Cherokee, who, for various errands, had
come north and east. A similarity of color, not to say
of racial relations, had established a warm friendship
among the five, and they had brought together gradually
twelve gentlemen of copper color, who had been residing
in this polling-booth since the second day after the
general election. Their fortune had not been unlike that
of Frederick and his friends, and at this moment they
were discussing the methods by which they might
distribute several brace of ducks which had been sent up
from Mashpee, a haunch of venison which had come down
from above Machias, and some wild turkeys which had
arrived by express from the St.
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