136 THREE KINGDOMS. 



months. Wherever one earnest, faithful, indomitable 

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

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

 humor to a thing 1 once, I am like your tailor's needle 

 / f/o nirougli" 



In illustration of the same subject, we print here 

 part of a report from an excellent chapter: "This pro- 

 gramme worked very well for a time, but soon, for some 

 members, the novelty of the thing 1 wore off, and, conse- 

 quently, their interest beg-an to flag 1 . They still attend 

 the meeting's when there were no parties or entertain- 

 ments to go to, or when their girls could not go walk- 

 ing', but they did not attend the meetings out of any de- 

 sire 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 la- 

 beled and catalogued. We had, besides these, a large 

 number of bird's-eggs and insects. Among other things 

 we counted valuable, were a buffalo's head, and a case of 

 birds worth nearly thirty dollars- We owned a library 

 of excellent books on zoology, mineralogy, and entomol- 

 ogy. Our meetings we held weekly at my home till Oc- 

 tober, and after that at a room for which we paid four 

 dollars per month. It certainly seems that, with every- 

 thing 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 con- 

 descended 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 



