ner in the deal and supplied a patent padlock (the key to which he kept awhile) and some odds and ends that he had “picked up” in the High School Laboratory (King, however, soon put a stop to this by telling him that he could keep his stolen goods to himself). Then he wound up by buying a lot of acids. - And I don’t believe he ever spent more than two or three hours in the place.
     We waited here a long time but King didn’t reappear. Finally I got disgusted and went back to the porch, and soon Bill came too.  When King came out with the key, Bill announced that “Ephraim had no chemical aspirations” so we sat on the porch and talked about the class play and ticket-selling. At least, the other two did; I just sat.  A butterfly darted past - a brown quick creature.  It was the first I had seen this spring so I lazily followed after it to look at it. It had settled near some poplar logs in the side yard, but when I came up it whirled away.  I informed the other two that I had seen a butterfly but they laughed at me, no matter how diligently I explained that certain butterflies hibernated. Now and then tiny winged creatures flew thru the air, one I captured and examined it and found it to be a little black beetle.
     Suddenly I suggested we play cards. So King went in and got his crochino-board and a deck of cards and we started “500”