fondness for marbles began very early, and when I was
about seven years old led me into a curious experience, which I am about
to relate. A great rivalry for acquiring marbles had suddenly arisen at
that time among the boys of the town, and to possess as many of the
little round beauties as my oldest brother owned, soon became the desire
of my heart and the height of my ambition.

I had already obtained a large number, when one day I overheard my
oldest brother telling one of his schoolmates that he had made the
important discovery that marbles could be formed from coal-tar, of which
there was a large quantity on a certain street in a distant part of the
town. He did not condescend to explain the process of manufacture, but
he showed the marbles he had made,--black, round, and glossy. The sight
inspired me with ardent desire to possess an unlimited quantity.

My brother told me just where the coveted treasure was to be found, and,
in the afternoon, I started off, without confiding to any one my
intention, to find the spot and lay in a supply of the raw material,
which I could convert into marbles at my leisure. Delightful visions of
bags filled with treasure, dancing through my brain, hastened the rate
of my speed almost to a run, before I arrived at the goal of my hopes.
It was a very hot July afternoon, and I was in a violent heat; but the
sight of the heaps of coal-tar put all thoughts of anything unpleasant
quite out of my head; it caused me to forget also that I had on a suit
of new clothes, of which I had been cautioned by my mother to be
extremely careful.

I need hardly remark that I was not very well acquainted with the
substance I was handling, and my only idea of its qualities was, that it
could be molded into any shape I pleased. I was not aware that it has
all the qualities of ordinary tar,--melts with heat, and becomes the
toughest, stickiest, most unmanageable of substances with which a small
boy can come into contact.

I fell to work to collect what I wanted to carry home. I filled the
pockets of my pantaloons, and of my jacket, and lastly, when these were
stuffed to their utmost capacity, I filled the crown of my hat so full
that it would hardly go on my head. The place was at some distance from
my home, and I did not wish to have to return immediately for more.

With a heart filled with triumph, I started off toward home. By this
time I began to realize that the weather was not cool. It had been a