or
supplies of any sort that his experiments might require.

He fitted up the little back room in the attic as his workshop, and
from thence a net-work of wires soon ran throughout the house. Not
only had every outside door its electric bell, but every window was
fitted with a burglar alarm; moreover no one could cross the threshold
of any interior room without registering the fact in Rob's workshop.
The gas was lighted by an electric fob; a chime, connected with an
erratic clock in the boy's room, woke the servants at all hours of the
night and caused the cook to give warning; a bell rang whenever the
postman dropped a letter into the box; there were bells, bells, bells
everywhere, ringing at the right time, the wrong time and all the time.
And there were telephones in the different rooms, too, through which
Rob could call up the different members of the family just when they
did not wish to be disturbed.

His mother and sisters soon came to vote the boy's scientific craze a
nuisance; but his father was delighted with these evidences of Rob's
skill as an electrician, and insisted that he be allowed perfect
freedom in carrying out his ideas.

"Electricity," said the old gentleman, sagely, "is destined to become
the motive power of the world. The future advance of civilization will
be along electrical lines. Our boy may become a great inventor and
astonish the world with his wonderful creations."

"And in the meantime," said the mother, despairingly, "we shall all be
electrocuted, or the house burned down by crossed wires, or we shall be
blown into eternity by an explosion of chemicals!"

"Nonsense!" ejaculated the proud father. "Rob's storage batteries are
not powerful enough to electrocute one or set the house on fire. Do
give the boy a chance, Belinda."

"And the pranks are so humiliating," continued the lady. "When the
minister called yesterday and rang the bell a big card appeared on the
front door on which was printed the words: 'Busy; Call Again.'
Fortunately Helen saw him and let him in, but when I reproved Robert
for the act he said he was just trying the sign to see if it would
work."

"Exactly! The boy is an inventor already. I shall have one of those
cards attached to the door of my private office at once. I tell you,
Belinda, our son will be a great man one of these days," said Mr.
Joslyn, walking up and down with pompous strides and almost bursting
with the pride he took in his young hopef