"I suppose I'll have to know if I'm to help you, whether I want to or not."
"Well, I had to study on that for quite a spell. You see I want a name for my house, and then my own name right under it, 'cause I like to see a man stand by his business, name and all; and then I want every body to know I stand up for temperance. I thought of 'Cold Water House,' but then you see it ain't a cold water house, cause coffee is my principal dish. Then I thought of 'Coffee House,' but there's a coffee house not more than two blocks away from my place, and they keep plenty of whisky there, and that wouldn't do. And I thought and thought, and by and by it came to me. I wouldn't have no 'House' at all about it, 'cause after all is said and done it's just a box; and I concluded to have a out-and-out temperance sign. I'll print a great big NO, so big you can see it across the street, and then we'll make two great big black bottles, like they keep rum in, standing by the 'No.' And then, says I, everybody will know where to find me on that question."
Even grave Winny laughed over this queer idea.
"I can't make bottles any more than I can fly away," she said at last "And neither can you."
"I shan't say that till I've tried it about a month, anyhow," Tode answered, positively. "I never did like to give up a thing before I began it."
The white cap frill nodded violently over this sentiment
"That's the way to talk," said the little mother. "There's more giving up of good things before they're begun than there ever is afterward, I do believe."
Such an evening as they had! Winny, in spite of her discouraging words, entered into the work with considerable heartiness; and the slate first, and afterward pieces of brown paper covered over with grotesque images of black bottles, looking most of them, it must be confessed, like anything else in the world. Finally the sympathetic mother came to the rescue. She mounted a high chair to reach the topmost shelf in her little den of a pantry, where were congregated the few bottles that had ensued from a quarter of a century of housekeeping. One after another was taken down and anxiously examined, until at last, oh joyful discovery! the label of one showed the picture of an unmistakable bottle, over which a picture of the inventor of the bitters which it was supposed to contain was fondly leaning, as if it were his staff of life. The young artists greeted it with delight, and with it for a model produced such delightful results that by half-past eight the sign shone out in blue and black and red chalks.
"Now for my circle," said Tode, seizing upon the piece of pasteboard which had been cut off. A large plate from the pantry did duty in the absence of sufficient geometrical knowledge, and the circle was quickly produced. Then did Tode's skill at making figures shine forth. In the bright red chalks did he quickly produce a circle of the nine figures around his pasteboard circle.
"Now what is all that for, I should like to know?" Winny asked, looking on half interestedly, half contemptuously.