We could not subdue our world and be spending all our
time in telegraphing our dear B. M. Could it be
possible--perhaps it was possible--that they there had
something else to think of and to do besides attending to
our affairs? Certainly their indifference to Grant's
fourth Proclamation, and to Mr. Fish's celebrated
protocol in the Tahiti business, looked that way. Could
it be that that little witch of a Belle Brannan really
cared more for their performance of "Midsummer
Night's Dream," or her father's birthday, than she cared
for that pleasant little account I telegraphed up to all
the children, of the way we went to muster when we were
boys together? Ah well! I ought not to have supposed
that all worlds were like this old world. Indeed, I
often say this is the queerest world I ever knew.
Perhaps theirs is not so queer, and it is I who am the
oddity.
Of course it could not last. We just arranged
correspondence days, when we would send to them, and they
to us. I was meanwhile turned out from my place at
Tamworth Observatory. Not but I did my work well, and
Polly hers. The observer's room was a miracle of
neatness. The children were kept in the basement.
Visitors were received with great courtesy; and all the
fees were sent to the treasurer; he got three dollars and
eleven cents one summer,--that was the year General Grant
came there; and that was the largest amount that they
ever received from any source but begging.
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