140 THREE KINGDOMS. 



months. Wherever one earnest, faithful, indomitable 

 worker is found, ultimate success is sure. Let us all 

 imitate old Ben Jonson, who said, " When I take the 

 humor of a thing once, I am like your tailor's needle 

 I go through!' 



In illustration of the same subject, we print here 

 part of a report recently received from an excellent 

 chapter : " This programme worked very well for a 

 time, but soon, for some members, the novelty of 

 the thing wore off, and, consequently, their interest 

 began to flag. They still attended the meetings 

 when there were no parties or entertainments to 

 go to, or when their girls could not go walking, but 

 they did not attend the meetings out of any desire to 

 gain knowledge. The few who took an interest in 

 their work did good work ; so good that, in less than 

 six months, we had over three hundred specimens in 

 our cabinet, of which two hundred and eight were 

 labeled and catalogued. We had, besides these, a 

 large number of birds'-eggs and insects. Among other 

 things we counted valuable, \vere a buffalo's head, and 

 a case of birds worth nearly thirty dollars. We owned 

 a library of excellent books on zoology, mineralogy, 

 and entomology. Our meetings we held weekly at 

 my home till October, and after that at a room for 

 which we paid four dollars per month. It certainly 

 seems that, with everything around us helping, and 

 everybody willing to help us, we might have had an 

 excellent chapter. The case was, however, that out 

 of the fifteen active members with which our chapter 

 was blessed, just nine were more of a hindrance than 

 a help. They sometimes condescended to attend the 

 meetings, but when they did so those who wanted to 

 work groaned to themselves and to each other. No 

 one could read an essay or extract, for when he began, 

 all those who did not care for it began to talk and 



