Kilo | Page 5

as a butterfly, appeared among them, and
Eliph' Hewlitt knew her at once as a city dweller, who had somehow
got into this dull and hard-working community. Almost at the same
moment she noticed him, and approached him. She smiled kindly and
extended her hand.
"Won't you come in?" she asked. "I don't seem to remember your face,
but we would be glad to have you join us."
Eliph' Hewlitt shook his head.
"No'm," he said sadly. "I'd better not come in. Not that I don't want to,

but I wouldn't be welcome. There ain't anything I like so much as
church picnics, and when I was a boy I used to cry for them, but I
wouldn't dare join you. I'm a"-- he looked around cautiously, and said
in a whisper--"I'm a book agent."
The lady laughed.
"Of course," she said, "that DOES make a difference; but you needn't
be a book agent to-day. You can forget it for a while and join us."
Eliph' Hewlitt shook his head again.
"That's it," he said. "That's just the reason. I CAN'T forget it. I try to,
but I can't. Just when I don't want to, I break out, and before I know it
I've sold everybody a book, and then I feel like I'd imposed on good
nature. They take me in as a friend and then I sell 'em a copy of Jarby's
'Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science
and Art,' ten thousand and one subjects, from A to Z, including recipes
for every known use, quotations from famous authors, lives of famous
men, and, in one word, all the world's wisdom condensed into one
volume, five dollars, neatly bound in cloth, one dollar down and one
dollar a month until paid."
He paused, and the lady looked at him with an amused smile.
"Of seven fifty, handsomely bound in morocco," he added. "So you see
I don't feel like I ought to impose. I know how I am. You take my
mother now. She hadn't seen me for eight years. I'd been traveling all
over these United States, carrying knowledge and culture into the
homes of the people at five dollars, easy payments, per home, and I got
a telegram saying, 'Come home. Mother very ill.'" He nodded his head
slowly. "Wonderful invention, the telegraph," he said. "It tells all about
it on page 562 of Jarby's 'Encyclopedia of Knowledge and
Compendium of Literature, Science and Art,'--who invented; when first
used; name of every city, town, village and station in the U.S. that has a
telegraph office; complete explanation of the telegraph system, telling
how words are carried over a slender wire, et cetery, et cetery. This and
ten thousand other useful facts in one volume, only five dollars, bound

in cloth. So when I got that telegram I took the train for home. Look in
the index under T. 'Train, Railway--see Railway.' 'Railway; when first
operated; inventor of the locomotive engine; railway accidents from
1892 to 1904, giving number of fatal accidents per year, per month, per
week, per day, and per miles; et cetery, et cetery. Every subject known
to man fully and interestingly treated, WITH illustrations."
"I don't believe I care for a copy to-day," said the lady.
"No," said Eliph' Hewlitt, meekly. "I know it. Nor I don't want to sell
you one. I just mentioned it to show you that when you have a copy of
Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge you have an entire library in one
book, arranged and indexed by the greatest minds of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. One dollar down and one dollar a month until paid.
But--when I got home I found mother low--very low. When I went in
she was just able to look up and whisper, 'Eliph'?' 'Yes, mother,' I says.
'Is it really you at last?' she says. 'Yes, mother,' I says, 'it's me at last,
mother, and I couldn't get here sooner. I was out in Ohio, carrying joy
to countless homes and introducing to them Jarby's Encyclopedia of
Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art. It is a
book, mother,' I says, 'suited for rich or poor, young or old. No family
is complete without it. Ten thousand and one subjects, all indexed from
A to Z, including an appendix of the Spanish War brought down to the
last moment, and maps of Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South
America and Australia. This book, mother,' I says, 'is a gold mine of
information for the young, and a solace for the old. Pages 201 to 263
filled with quotations from the world's great poets, making select and
helpful reading for the fireside lamp. Pages 463 to 468, dying sayings
of famous men and women. A book,' I says, 'that teaches us how