mation about Mayor
Higginbotham? I think it was unwise of you to connect her with the
enterprise."

"Don't bother about that, Bunny. _I_ wrote that letter of
introduction--I haven't studied penmanship for nothing, you know.
Mrs. Gaster will never know. So just put on your boldest front,
remember your name, and don't forget to be modest about your own
two-hundred-thousand-dollar art gallery. That will inspire him, I
think."

It took me a week to get at the iron-master; but finally, thanks to
Mrs. Gaster's letter of introduction, I succeeded. Mr. Carnegie was as
always in a most amiable frame of mind, and received me cordially, even
when he discovered my real business with him.

[Illustration: "'IF YOU WANTED A LAKE, MR. HIGGINBOTHAM, I--'"]

"I hadn't intended to give any more libraries this year," he said, as he
glanced over the pictures. "I am giving away lakes now," he added. "If
you wanted a lake, Mr. Higginbotham, I--"

"We have such a large water-front already, Mr. Carnegie," said I, "and
most of our residents are young married couples with children not over
three and five. I am afraid they would regard a lake as a source of
danger."

"That's a pretty playground," he suggested, glancing at the Oberlin
Park. "Somehow or other, it reminds me of something."

I thought it quite likely, but, of course, I didn't say so. I may be a
fool but I have some tact.

"It's at the far corner of the park that we propose to put the library
if you are good enough to let us have it," was all I ventured.

"H'm!" he mused. "Well, do you know, I like to help people who help
themselves--that's my system."

I assured him that we of Raffleshurst were accustomed to helping
ourselves to everything we could lay our hands on, a jest which even
though it was only too true seemed to strike him pleasantly.

"What is that handsome structure you always pass over?" he asked, as I
contrived to push the music-hall photograph aside for the fifth time.

I laughed deprecatingly. "Oh, that," I said, modestly--"that's only a
little two-hundred-thousand-dollar music-hall and art gallery I have
built for the town myself."

Oh, that wonderful Henriette! How did she know that generosity even
among the overgenerous was infectious?

"Indeed!" said Mr. Carnegie, his face lighting up with real pleasure.
"Well, Mr. Higginbotham, I guess-- I guess I'll do it. I can't be
outdone in generosity by you, sir, and--er-- I guess you can count on
the libra