also wakened most of her boarders from their
slumbers, her ire was great and the next morning she informed the two
men that if they could not be more quiet at night they would have to
leave her house."

An appreciative chuckle came from the listeners.

"If she had known what she was sheltering, I suppose she would have
been proud as a peacock and promptly told all her neighbors," grinned
Ted.

"Undoubtedly! But she did not know, poor soul!" returned Mr. Hazen.

"After this Mr. Bell and Mr. Watson must have shot ahead by leaps and
bounds," commented Laurie.

"There is no denying that that two-mile test did give them both courage
and assurance," responded the tutor. "They got chances to try out the
invention on longer telegraph wires; and in spite of the fact that no
such thing as hard-drawn copper wire was in existence they managed to
get results even over rusty wires with their unsoldered joinings.
Through such experiments an increasingly wider circle of outside
persons heard of the telephone and the marvel began to attract greater
attention. Mr. Bell's modest little laboratory became the mecca of
scientists and visitors of every imaginable type. Moses G. Farmer, well
known in the electrical world, came to view the wonder and confessed to
Mr. Bell that more than once he had lingered on the threshold of the
same mighty discovery but had never been able to step across it into
success. It amused both Mr. Bell and Mr. Watson to see how embarrassed
persons were when allowed to talk over the wire. Standing up and
speaking into a box has long since become too much a matter of course
with us to appear ridiculous; but those experiencing the novelty for
the first time were so overwhelmed by self-consciousness that they
could think of nothing to say. One day when Mr. Watson called from his
end of the line, 'How do you do?' a dignified lawyer who was trying the
instrument answered with a foolish giggle, 'Rig-a-jig-jig and away we
go!' The psychological reaction was too much for many a well-poised
individual and I do not wonder it was, do you?"

"It must have been almost as good as a vaudeville show to watch the
people," commented Ted.

"Better! Lots better!" echoed Laurie.

"In April, 1877, the first out-of-door telephone line running on its
own private wires was installed in the shop of Charles Williams at
Number 109 Court Street and carried from there out to his house at
Somerville. Quite a little ceremony marked the ev