-Susan and I trying
to keep up some sort of a conversation, and Gregory Wilkinson thinking
away as hard as ever he could think--a thin man in a buggy drove down
the road and stopped at our hitch-ing-post. When he had hitched his
horse he took out from the after-part of the buggy a largo tin vessel
standing on light iron legs, and came up to the house with it. He made
us all a sort of comprehensive bow, but stopped in front of Susan, set
the tin vessel upon its legs, and said:

"Madam, you behold before you the most economical device and the
greatest labor-saving invention of this extraordinarily devicious and
richly inventive age. This article, madam"--and he placed his hand
upon the tin vessel affectionately--"is Stowe's patent combination
interchangeable churn and wash-boiler."

Susan did not say anything; she simply shuddered.

"As at present arranged, madam," the man went on, "it is a churn.
Standing thus upon these light yet firm legs" (the thing wobbled
outrageously), "with this serviceable handle projecting from the top,
and communicating with an exceptionally effective churning apparatus
within, it is beyond all doubt the very best churn, as well as the
cheapest, now offered on the American market. But observe, madam, that
as a wash-boiler it is not less excellent. By the simple process of
removing the handle, taking out the dasher, and unshipping the legs--the
work, as you perceive, of but a moment--the process of transformation
is complete. As to the trifling orifice that the removal of the handle
leaves in the lid, it becomes, when the wash-boiler side of this
Protean vessel is uppermost, a positive benefit. It is an effective
safety-valve. Without it, I am not prepared to say that the boiler would
not burst, scattering around it the scalded, mangled remains of your
washer-woman and utterly ruining your week's wash.

"And mark, madam, mark most of all, the economy of this invention. I
need not say to you, a housekeeper of knowledge and experience,
that churning-day and wash-day stand separate and distinct upon your
household calendar. Under no circumstances is it conceivable that the
churn and the wash-boiler shall be required for use upon the same day.
Clearly the use of the one presupposes and compels the neglect of the
other. Then why cumber your house with these two articles, equally large
and equally unwieldly, when, by means of the beautiful invention that
I have the honor of presenting to your noti