as the balance due.

"All right!" said he. "I have the ninety-nine still on hand. Are you in
the tea business, sir?"

"Oh, no," said I; "the pictures are intended for a large Association."

"No better way of extending the influence of art, sir," he said,
heartily. "I shall charge you nothing for boxing. The same address,
sir?"

"No, they must be forwarded to my residence," and I gave him the needful
directions, and a check.

The next day the ninety-nine pictures arrived and were stored in my
barn. My wife, to whom I had told my plan, made some objections to it,
saying it did not seem right to use half the money paid in to buy so
many pictures; but I told her that no one could expect in a raffle to
clear all the money subscribed, and that although we should not gain as
much as I had hoped, we should clear a hundred dollars, and every man
would have a picture. This was surely fair, and the fact was that the
unsympathetic state of mind of our members made it necessary for me to
do something of this kind, if I expected to raise the needed money at
all.

The raffle was announced, and on the appointed evening there was a full
attendance. The prize was won by a Mr. Horter, an art-collector of a
nervous temperament, who had objected to the raffle, and who had
consented to buy a ticket only after repeated solicitations.