Kilo | Page 9

prestige of having
sold the minister himself a copy of Jarby's Encyclopedia made success
a certainty.
He took the oilcloth-covered parcel from beneath his arm, and handed
it to the minister gently, lovingly.
"Keep it until the picnic is over," he said. "I'm a book agent. I sell
books. THIS is the book I sell. Take it away and hide it, so I can forget
it and be happy. Don't let me have it until the picnic is over. PLEASE
don't!"
He stretched out his arms in freedom, and the minister smiled and led
the way toward the place where a buggy cushion had been laid on the
grass as his seat of honor.

"I will retain the book," said the minister, with a smile, "although I
don't think you can sell the book here. My brethren in Clarence are not
readers. I read little myself. We are poor; we have no time to read.
Except the Bible, I know of but one book in this entire community.
Sister Dawson has a copy of Bunyan's sublime work, 'Pilgrim's
Progress.' It was an heirloom. Be seated," he said, and Eliph' Hewlitt
seated himself Turk-fashion, on the sod.
The minister took the book carefully on his knees. Even to feel a new
book was a pleasure he did not often have, and his fingers itched upon
it.
In three minutes Eliph' Hewlitt knew the entire story of Mrs. Smith and
Susan, so far as it was known to the minister, and he leaned over and
tapped with his forefinger the book on the minister's knee.
"Open it," he said.
The minister removed the wrapper.
"Page 6, Index," said Eliph' Hewlitt, turning the pages. He ran his
finger down the page, and up and down page 7, stopped at a line on
page 8, and hastily turned over the pages of the book. At page 974 he
laid the book open, and the minister adjusted his spectacles and read
where the book agent pointed. Then he pushed his spectacles up on his
forehead and looked carefully at the picnickers. He singled out Mrs.
Tarbro-Smith, and waved her toward him with his hand. She came and
stood before him.
The minister wiped his spectacles on his handkerchief, readjusted them
on his nose, and bent over the book.
"What is your brother's name?" he asked kindly, but with solemnity.
"Marriott Nolan Tarbro," she answered.
He traced the lines carefully with his finger.

"Born?" he asked.
"June 4, 1864, at Tarrytown-on-the-Hudson."
"And he is married?"
"Married Amanda Rogers Long, at Newport, Rhode Island, June 14,
1895."
"Where is he living now?" he asked.
"Last year he was living in New York--I am a widow, as you know--but
last fall he went to Algiers."
"The book says Algiers. What-er-clubs is he a member of?"
"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Smith; "The Authors and The Century."
"I have no doubt," said the minister, "from what the book says, and
what you say, that you are indeed the sister of this--ah--celebrated"--he
looked at the book--"celebrated novelist, who is a man of such standing
that he received--ah-- several more lines in this work than the average,
more, in fact, than Talmage, more than Beecher, and more than the
present governor of the State of Iowa. I think I may safely advise Mrs.
Bell to let Susan go with you."
"One!" said Eliph' Hewlitt quickly. "That's just ONE question that
came up flaring, and was mashed flat by Jarby's Encyclopedia of
Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art, a book in
which are ten thousand and one subjects, fully treated by the best minds
of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One subject for every day in
the year for twenty-seven years, and some left over. Religion, politics,
literature, every subject under the sun, gathered in one grand colossal
encyclopedia with an index so simple that a child can understand it. See
page 768, 'Texts, Biblical; Hints for Sermons; The Art of Pulpit
Eloquence.' No minister should be without it. See page 1046, 'Pulpit
Orators--Golden Words of the Greatest, comprising selections from
Spurgeon, Robertson, Talmage, Beecher, Parkhurst,' et cetery. A book

that should be in every home. Look at 'P': Poets, Great. Poison,
Antidotes for. Poker, Rules of. Poland, History and Geography of, with
Map. Pomeroy, Brick. Pomatum, How to Make. Ponce de Leon,
Voyages and Life of. Pop, Ginger,' et cetery, et cetery. The whole for
the small sum of five dollars, bound in cloth, one dollar down and one
dollar a month until paid."
The minister turned the pages slowly.
"It seems a worthy book," he said hesitatingly.
Eliph' Hewlitt looked at Mrs. Smith, with a question in his eyes.
She nodded.
"Ah!" he said. "Mrs. Smith, sister of the well-known novelist, Marriott
Nolan Tarbro, takes two copies of Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge