to wait for the casting, the inventor
took the engine to pieces and made the small changes that would be
necessary before finally putting it together again, which would probably
occupy two days.

Meanwhile the little City of Hope grew rapidly, and was becoming an
important centre of civilisation and commerce, though it was only made
of paper and chips, and bits of matchboxes and odds and ends cleverly
put together with glue and painted; except the people in the street. For
it was inhabited now, and though the men and women did not move about,
they looked as if they might, if they were only bigger. Overholt had
seen the population in the window of a German toy-shop one day when he
was in New York to get a new crocusing wheel for polishing some of the
small parts of the engine. They were the smallest doll-people he had
ever seen, and were packed by dozens and dozens in Nuremberg toy-boxes,
and cost very little, so he bought a quantity of them. At first Newton
rather resented them, just because they were only toys, but his father
explained to him that models of human figures were almost necessary to
models of buildings, to give an idea of the population, and that when
architects make coloured sketches of projected houses, they generally
draw in one or two people for that reason; and this was perfectly
satisfactory to the boy, and saved his dignity from the slight it would
have suffered if he had been actually seen amusing himself with mere
playthings.

Overholt was divinely happy in anticipation of the final success that
was so near, and in the daily work that was making it more and more a
certainty, as he thought; and then, when the day was over, he was just
as happy with the little City, which was being decorated for Christmas,
with wreaths in the windows of the houses, and a great many more
holly-trees than had at first been thought of, and numberless little
Christmas booths round the common, like those in Avenue A, south of
Tompkins Square, in New York, which make you fancy you are in Munich or
Prague if you go and see them at the right hour on Christmas Eve.

Before long Overholt received a short note from the President of his old
College, simply saying that the latter knew of no opening at present,
but would bear him in mind. But that did not matter now.

So the two spent their time very pleasantly during the next weeks; but
though Overholt was so hopeful and delighted with his work, he knew that
he was becoming