I thought almost everybody had had a better place than Ned's to see the Novelty Works' fire, but kept my thoughts to myself.
"I'll spoil that job for him," continued Ned.
"How can you do it?" said I.
"By getting Fay's invention patented, and then having it brought before the Common Council at their very next meeting. We might let this city use it free; that would give us a great reputation for patriotism, and bring it into notice, and then we could make all the other cities pay a big price for it."
"Wouldn't some people oppose it?" said I.
"Yes, the boys would, because it spoils all the fun of fires; and the chief engineers would, because it spoils their salaries; but all the other people would go for it, because it saves millions of dollars' worth of property. The women, especially, would be friendly to it, because it saves the scare."
"What do you mean by that?" said I, not quite understanding him.
"Why, you must know," said Ned, "that when a woman wakes up in the middle of the night and finds the four walls of her room on fire, and the floor hotter than an oven, and the ceiling cracking open, and the bed-clothes blazing, she's awfully scared, as a general thing."
"I don't doubt it," said I.
"But Fay's invention puts out the fires so quick, besides keeping them from spreading, that it saves all that anguish of mind, as well as the property."