Congressman Atkins had been, since his return to Bayport, exceedingly noncommittal concerning the appropriation.

To Tad Simpson and a very few chosen lieutenants and intimates he had said that he hoped to get it; that was all.

This was a disquieting change of attitude, for, at the beginning of the term just passed, he had affirmed that he was GOING to get it.
However, as Mr.Simpson reassuringly said: "The job's in as good hands as can be, so what's the use of OUR worryin' ?" Bailey Bangs certainly was not troubled on that score; but the town clerk's proposal that Captain Cy be provided with a suitable wife did worry him.

Bailey was so very much married himself and had such decided, though unspoken, views concerning matrimony that such a proposal seemed to him lunacy, pure and simple.

He had liked and admired his friend "Whit" in the old days, when the latter led them into all sorts of boyish scrapes; now he regarded him with a liking that was close to worship.