THE library arrived, and the books were covered, labelled, numbered,
and shelved before the probable beneficiaries knew of their existence;
then Master Scrapsey Green was employed to walk through the village
streets, ringing a bell, and shouting:--
"Free--circulating--library--now--open--at--Somerton's--store!"
Notices to the same effect had already been mailed to all possible
readers in the county. The self-appointed librarian had not believed
that more than one in four of the inhabitants of the town or county
would care to read, but neither had she taken thought of the consuming
curiosity of villagers and country-folk. Within an hour the back room
of the store was packed to suffocation, although Grace pressed a book
on each visitor, with a request to make way for some one else.
After several hours of issuing and recording, Grace found herself
alone; so she gladly escaped to the store proper to compare notes with
Philip and Caleb, who had taken turns at dropping in to "see the fun,"
as Philip called it, and to announce, at the librarian's request, that
only a single book a week would be loaned to a family, and to request
the borrowers to return the books as soon as read.
On entering the store, Grace found herself face to face with Doctor and
Mrs. Taggess and Pastor Grateway, all of whom greeted her cordially,
and congratulated her on the successful opening of the Somerton Library.
"That's a cruel proof of the saying that one sows and another reaps,"
she replied; "but please understand in future that this is not the
Somerton Library. It is the Caleb Wright Library."
"Je--ru--salem!" exclaimed Caleb, "an' I didn't put a cent into it!"
"You devised it," Grace replied. "'Twas like Columbus making the egg
stand on end; any one could do it after being told how."
About this time some responses, in the forms of half-grown boys and
girls on foot, began to arrive from the farming district, and Grace
had occasionally to leave the store. As she returned from one of these
excursions, Mrs. Taggess took her hands and exclaimed:--
"What a good time you must have had!"
"Oh, wife!" protested the Doctor. "Is this the place for sarcasm? The
poor girl looks tired to death."
"Nevertheless, Mrs. Taggess is entirely right," said Grace. "It was
a good time, indeed. How I wish I could sketch from memory! Still, I
shall never forget the expression of some of those faces. What a dear
lot of people there are in this town!"
"Hurrah!" shouted the Doctor. "I was afraid that, coming from the city,
you mightn't be able to find it out. I apologize with all my heart."
"'Tis high time you did," said his wife. "The idea that a doctor, of
all men, shouldn't know that a woman's heart rules her eyes."
"Yes," said the Doctor, affecting a sigh. "It's dreadful to be a man,
and know so much that sometimes an important bit of knowledge gets
hidden behind something else at the very time it's most needed. How
many books have you remaining, to satisfy the country demand, Mrs.
Somerton?"
"Not enough, I fear. We ought to have bought one or two hundred more
volumes."
"Which means," said Philip, with a pretence at being grieved at having
been forgotten during the congratulations, "that they will have to be
purchased at once, and paid for, by the mere nobody of the concern."
"Nobody, indeed!" exclaimed Grace, with a look which caused the
Taggesses to exchange delighted pinches, and the minister to say:--
"I don't think any one need go far to find a proof of the blessed
mystery that one and one need make only one, if rightly added."
"No, indeed," said the Doctor, "but at least one-half of the one in
question is so tired that it ought to get some rest, which it won't and
can't while we visitors stay here to admire and ask questions. Come
along, wife; we'll find some better time to talk her and these other
good people to death about what they've done. I've only to say that
if Brother Grateway doesn't give you his benediction in words, he will
leave one for you all the same, and there'll be two others to keep it
company--eh, wife?"
"Phil," Grace said, as soon as the visitors had departed, "I've a new
idea. 'Tis not as good as Caleb's which has made this library, but
'twill give no end of surprise and satisfaction to people, as well
as lots of fun to me and bring some business to the store. I want a
camera. I don't see how we were so stupid as not to bring one with us
from New York."
"A camera?" said Caleb. "What sort of a thing is it?"
"A contrivance for taking photographs. There are small cheap ones that
any amateur can use. Two or three girls in our store in New York had
them, and took some very fair pictures."
"I want to know! Well, if any gals done it, I reckon you can."
"You shall see. I want one at once, Phil; order it by the first mail,
please, and with all the necessary outfit."
"Your will is law, my dear, but I shall first have to learn where to
send the order and exactly what to get."
"Let me attend to it. I can order direct from the store in which I
worked; they sold everything of the kind."
"There'll be no mail eastward till to-morrow. Won't you oblige your
husband, at once, by going to the house, and making a picture of
yourself, on a lounge, with your eyes shut?"
"Yes--if I must. But oh, what lots of fun I shall have with that
camera!"