156 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



missing volume must be brought to light. Again I 

 crawled in, in spite of wasps, spiders, and millipeds, all 

 of which took my presence grudgingly. I searched as 

 thoroughly as practicable, and was about to return for 

 no book of that size could be found when a glittering 

 object, like a coin, attracted my attention. It was a 

 pewter button on an old coat ; and I saw then that a 

 double row of them graced the front of the garment. I 

 brought the coat into daylight, and for the moment for- 

 got the missing volume of Du Pratz. It was such a 

 garment as I have seen in pictures and nowhere else. 

 Besides the two rows of buttons down the front, there 

 were three on each of the great flaps covering the side- 

 pockets, and three more on each of the wide-spreading 

 pocketed tails. Forty metal buttons on a coat ! I held 

 it aloft by the shoulders and gazed admiringly ; then 

 laying it down, I proceeded to explore its capacious 

 pockets. In one of them was the missing volume of 

 Du Pratz ! I pinched myself to see if it was I. Was 

 it not a dream ? No, there was the coveted book, and 

 with a sigh of relief I sat down. 



I made a third attempt to get a knowledge of what 

 the closet contained, and particularly coveted an exam- 

 ination of an old trunk, but before I reached it, became 

 tangled in a maze of spinning-wheels which I had hith- 

 erto escaped. My arms somehow were slipped in wheels 

 of different machines, and to dislodge them was no easy 

 matter. They resented by revolving to the full extent 

 of the elasticity of my arms. It was a trial of both 

 nerve and patience ; but with one frantic effort I got 

 through, and reached the great black box, hide-bound, 



