The burden was shifted to his poor
shoulders with as little concern as if our best citizens had not
cooeperated with him in the original move, with grateful applause for its
ingenious and fanciful daring. In ways devoid of his own vaunted
subtlety, it was conveyed to Solon that Little Arcady expected him to do
something. This was after the town had been cleanly canvassed for two
monthly magazines--one of which had a dress-pattern in each number, to
be cut out on the dotted line--and after our heroine had gallantly
returned to the charge with a rather heavy "Handbook of Science for the
Home,"--a book costing two dollars and fifty cents and treating of many
matters, such as, how to conduct electrical experiments in a
drawing-room, how to cleanse linen of ink-stains, how the world was
made, who invented gun-powder, and how to restore the drowned. I recite
these from memory, not having at hand either of my own two copies of
this valuable work. Upon myself Mrs. Potts was never to call in vain,
for to me she was an important card miraculously shuffled into the right
place in the game. It was the custom of Miss Caroline, also, to sign
gladly for whatsoever Mrs. Potts signified would be to her advantage.
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