es, and practise with them. "Having purchased the
gloves," continued Mr. Boggs, "I was still at a loss to know how to
proceed. I didn't want to practice with anybody, because I knew that my
awkwardness would make mirth for them, and to this I was decidedly
opposed. Under these circumstances I resorted to other means. In the
garret of the house in which I lived was a mammoth stove--in fact,
gentlemen, a stove which I could strike and not knock over, which would
not laugh at me in my attacks, and therefore a stove with which I made
up my mind to have a few rounds each day.

"The next day I went up into the garret. There stood the sable champion
of heavy weight, and, for the first time in my life, I stripped myself
of my coat, to fight without being appalled. The stove loomed up in
giant proportions; I stood before it, and squared off as well as I knew
how. I imagined I saw the stove's right fist coming at my left eye. I
parried off the blow, which, without doubt, would have been aimed at me,
had the stove had a right fist as I imagined, and with my right fist I
planted a stunner in the place where his bread-basket should have been.
The result was a powerful reaction, and I found myself sprawling on the
floor. I ascertained that I was not damaged, and wisely determined then
that I would not strike such powerful blows in the future.

"I again squared off, and began putting in the blows in rapid
succession, whilst I managed successfully to keep my adversary from
hitting me in even one of the many attempts which I imagined he made. I
kept up the practice about an hour.

"The next day I resumed my practice, and I kept it up for several weeks,
when I fancied that I was sufficiently expert to 'travel on my muscle.'

"To be sure, I had fought an inanimate object, which could not strike;
still, in the tussles I had imagined the stove striking at me from all
conceivable directions, and I had not only been able to guard-off these
imaginary blows, but I had shown the stove that I could put in a few
astonishers between times.

"I was ready now for practice with a living adversary. But who was he to
be? that was the question. I was still unwilling to call in any of my
acquaintances, as I might possibly after all be found _veni, vidi,
vici_, as we say in the classics, which, when translated into English,
means weighed in the balance and found short (suppressed snickers).

"One day, as I was cogitating upon the matter in front of th