|
| _Step up and have your picture taken_ |
| |
----------------------------------------------------------------

This sign he nailed to a tree near the road which he made his
headquarters. He preferred to keep the location and nature of his abode
a secret, and so spent his days under his tree or sitting in the porch
of some neighboring house, for he was not long in making friends, and
his marvellous tales made him very popular.

It was difficult for him to fix a price at first, not being acquainted
with the coin of the realm, but he put his whole mind to the acquisition
of reliable information on this point, and his native shrewdness brought
him success.

He found that it was wisest for every reason to let it be believed that
the pictures were produced by hand. The camera, he explained, was a mere
aid to accuracy of observation and memory in reproduction of what he saw
through it. Thus he was able to command much higher prices for the
excellence and perfection of his work and, had he but known it, further
avoided suspicion of witchcraft which would probably have attached to
him had he let it be known that the camera really produced the picture.

In the course of his daily gossip with neighbors and with the customers,
rustic and urban, who were attracted by his fame, he soon learned that
"Good Queen Bess" ruled the land, and his speech gradually took on a
tinge of the Elizabethan manner and vocabulary which, mingling with his
native New England idioms, produced a very picturesque effect.

It was a warm night some weeks after Droop had "hung out his shingle" as
a professional photographer that he sat in the main room of the
Panchronicon, reading for perhaps the twentieth time Phoebe's famous
book on Bacon and Shakespeare, which she had left behind. The other
books on hand he found too dry, and he whiled away his idle hours with
this invaluable historic work, feeling that its tone was in harmony with
his recent experiences.

So to-night he was reading with the shutters tightly closed to prevent
attracting the gaze of outsiders. No one had yet discovered his
residence, and he had flattered himself that it would remain permanently
a secret.

His surprise and consternation were great, therefore, when he was
suddenly disturbed in his reading by a gentle knocking on the do