experience in teaching have prepared
them to quickly untangle the mixed quantities or conditions that may
confront us, and thus skillfully turn our difficulties into delights.

"With this general plan for conducting our literary festival, I will
leave the subject with you for consideration at the proper time.

"I feel conscious that under the circumstances, I owe you an apology for
having so trespassed upon your patience and good nature, by the length
of my remarks. Therefore I desire to acknowledge my thrice doubled
appreciation of your manifest interest, attention and sympathy, which
have both flattered and encouraged me greatly.

"I will now close by thanking you, through your worthy officers, for
this cordial and beautiful reception; also for the opportunity to
address you on a subject in which I am so deeply interested."

CHAPTER XXIII.

FORMATION OF POPULAR SCIENCE CLUBS.

As the days passed after the reception, the new books were unpacked by
Fillmore Flagg, assisted by George Gerrish. As soon as possible they
were arranged and placed on appropriate shelves in each one of the ten
rooms prepared for them. Large steel engravings in plain oak frames, of
all the authors, together with the maps and charts, all neatly glazed
and mounted, adorned the walls of the particular room to which they
belonged, adding greatly to the attractiveness of the general
collection. As the work progressed, the keen interest displayed by all
members of the farm company seemed to increase. They could talk of
nothing else; they were eagerly and almost impatiently waiting for the
announcement of the formation of the clubs. Accordingly therefore, as
soon as the rooms were ready, a complete schedule of the books in each
series was made; these schedules being numbered from one to ten, to
indicate the series to which they belonged. They were printed and
distributed among the members of the company, with a request that one
week later, each member should return two of the numbered schedules
marked as first and second choice of the studies they desired to take
up. By this method of voluntary selection, the clubs were quickly and
easily formed, without friction or embarassment. Well stimulated by an
ever increasing fund of interest and enthusiastic ambition, the club
members, impressed with the wisdom of Fillmore Flagg's advice, promptly
took up the class work of the study chosen, eager to secure a generous
share of the educational ben