This remark, from a man in front, made most of the people laugh. One very serious old man kept the box in his hands. He had neither laughed nor smiled when the man in front spoke, but he looked earnestly at Mr. Snider. "Just let me test them little bits of dust, will yer, Mister?" "Test them? Oh, yes,--certainly, certainly. By all means." "That's right," said two or three, "let Melvin test 'em." After giving the box to someone else to hold, Melvin fished out of his pocket a little china dish and a bottle of some liquid. They scraped off some of the gilt particles with a pocket knife, and put them in the dish. Melvin had his bottle poised above them. "If it aint genyewine," said he, solemnly, "it'll fizzle when I pour this acid onto it, but if it is genyewine, it won't fizzle." Then he poured the acid into the dish. There was a pause. "It don't fizzle," said he. "Three cheers for Brother Snider!" bellowed the Hon. J. Harvey Bowditch. The old man who had made the test advanced toward Mr. Snider. He had a roll of money in his hand, and I saw a hundred dollar bill on top. "I'll take a hundred of them shares, Mister," said he. "I come first here," said another man, "I've had this fixed up with Harvey Bowditch ever since we come. Gimme fifty shares." "I'll take fifty of 'em," said another man. "Here's twenty-five dollars," said another, "that's good for five shares, aint it?" "Just one moment, friends," said Mr. Snider, "just one moment." They got a stool from the "May Queen," and a little table. Mr. Snider sat down at the table, with Mr. Bowditch and Deacon Chick hovering near. They produced a bundle of certificates, all printed in bright purple ink, with a picture of Washington, and a big eagle, and a flag at the top. At the bottom was a great gold seal, with two red ribbons fluttering from it. Mr. Snider filled in the names with a fountain pen, and the number of shares that each man purchased. He sat there and simply raked in money. I counted three thousand dollars before I got tired counting. But they got more than that, for the black-eyed man--the man who groaned during the speech- making--told me that old Melvin Eaton, who had tested the gold, walked away for a while and thought it over, and then came back and bought four hundred more shares, giving Mr. Snider five hundred dollars in cash and a check for fifteen hundred. This had such an effect on the others--for Melvin had a reputation for being "closer'n the bark of a tree"--that several of them doubled their previous purchases. One man had already bought a hundred shares, and now he counted ten more fifty dollar bills into Mr. Snider's hand. The money went into a black bag, and Mr. Snider raised the number of shares on his certificate to two hundred. "No need to waste another certificate," said he. The black-eyed man pulled me by the sleeve, and led me up the wharf, away from the crowd. "You didn't come on the boat with us," he said, "perhaps you're part of the Company?"