“Well, find out; ask someone. Mr. Crane can tell you, I guess.”
“Who’s going to pay for the postage stamp?” asked Kid.
“It will be paid for out of the fund, of course.”
“Oh, all right.” Kid looked about inquiringly. “Come across, someone. Two cents, please.”
“Haven’t you got two cents?” asked Lanny disgustedly.
Kid cheerfully shook his head. “I have not. And if I had I wouldn’t waste it on stamps.”
Bert supplied two pennies and Kid dropped them into his pocket. “You see that you buy a stamp with them, though, and not candy,” admonished Lanny. Kid grinned.
On Thursday a small package arrived by mail for Kid. The other fellows evinced a good deal of curiosity regarding it, and Harold Cupples asserted that he smelled candy. Kid declared that Harold was mistaken, and was finally allowed to bear the package away. He was a little bit disappointed in the size of it. He had unconsciously expected it to arrive by express and be more of the dimensions of a packing case. As Stanley was in the room, Kid bore the bundle downstairs to the laboratory, which was empty at that hour, and opened it. First of all there was a whole lot of advertising matter; a banner which when unrolled was nearly a foot and a half long and proportionately wide, a dozen circulars and an equal number of cards, all extolling the merits of Tinkham’s Throat-Ease. The banner was enticingly colored in black and red and its legend was: “Take a Tablet—Tinkham’s Throat-Ease Never Fails—Cure That Cough Now.” The circulars contained many testimonials which Kid postponed reading for the present. The cards held the picture of a little black imp tickling the throat of an agonized gentleman with a straw and the inscription: “Stop that Tickling! Use Tinkham’s Throat-Ease! Fifty Tasty Tablets for Twenty-five Cents! All Druggists Everywhere! If You Can’t Find Them Write to Us! Tinkham Chemical Co., Waterloo, Ill.”
The tablets were put up in little square pasteboard boxes, and in Kid’s judgment lacked attractiveness. He pushed open one box and viewed the contents. The tablets were very tiny, dark brown in color, and smelled like a drug store. Selecting one, Kid tasted it tentatively. It was distinctly unpleasant.
“All the better, though,” he reflected. “A fellow always thinks more of a medicine that tastes ugly. Gee, those things ought to scare a cough to death!”