voice was inaudible beyond the fifth row of chairs. In the rear of
the room they caught the words "mint" and "still," and were under the
impression that he was advocating the manufacture of counterfeit money
and moonshine whiskey. As a matter of fact, the doctor advised the
purchase of large tracts of land which could be flooded and transformed
into bogs. These bogs were to be planted in peppermint, for which, he
averred, there was an insatiable demand. The world had yet to have too
much peppermint. So long as there were babies there would be colic, and
so long as there was colic there would be a need for peppermint;
therefore, reasoning along the dotted line from A to Z, there always
would be a market. Peppermint was the one industry requiring small
capital which had not been overdone. He could go to Illinois and
purchase a secondhand still of which he knew, at small cost. A bottling
works for preparing and labeling the essence could be established in
Prouty, and there was no reason why, in time, Prouty should not become
the recognized peppermint center of America.

When the doctor sat down, after giving the back of the chair which he
gripped a farewell wring that all but tore it loose from its sockets,
Mr. Butefish arose and congratulated him upon the novelty of his
suggestion and recommended that it be investigated carefully.

There was excellent reason to believe that Walter Scales, at no remote
date, had been handling kerosene and saltfish, for the air in his
vicinity was redolent of these commodities as he arose when called upon
as the next in order.

Before speaking of the remedy for the present stagnant condition of "the
fairest spot that the sun ever shone upon," Mr. Scales stated that he
wished to protest thus publicly against the practice which now obtained
of pitching horseshoes in the main street of Prouty. There was nothing,
he declared vehemently, which made so bad an impression upon a stranger
as to see the leading citizens of a community pitching horseshoes in its
principal thoroughfare.

Passing on to the purpose for which he had risen, Mr. Scales averred
that it was probable that he would be considered an impractical
visionary when he made known his proposition; nevertheless, it had been
long in his mind and no harm would come from voicing it. To his notion,
the thing most needed to revitalize Prouty was an electric car-line.
This line should start at the far end of town, somewhere down by the
Dou