II

HOW WE BUILT IT

The orange was squeezed dry! And how little any of us
knew,--skilful George Orcutt, thoughtful Ben Brannan,
loyal Haliburton, ingenious Q., or poor painstaking
I,--how little we knew, or any of us, where was another
orange, or how we could mix malic acid and tartaric
acid, and citric acid and auric acid and sugar and
water so as to imitate orange-juice, and fill up the
bank-account enough to draw in the conditioned
subscriptions, and so begin to build the MOON. How
often, as I lay awake at night, have I added up the
different subscriptions in some new order, as if that
would help the matter: and how steadily they have come
out one hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars, or even
less, when I must needs, in my sleepiness, forget
somebody's name! So Haliburton put into railroad
stocks all the money he collected, and the rest of us
ground on at our mills, or flew up on our own wings
towards Heaven. Thus Orcutt built more tunnels, Q.
prepared for more commencements, Haliburton calculated
more policies, Ben Brannan created more civilization,
and I, as I could, healed the hurt of my people of
Naguadavick for the months there were left to me of my
stay in that thriving town.