' She always was just so enthusiastic
about things. Well, it was just after two or three
boats had burnt up out West, and a lot of lives lost,
and there was a great cry about non-inflammable paint,
and I guess that was what was in her mind. 'Well, I
guess it ain't any gold-mine, Persis,' says I; 'but I
guess it IS a paint-mine. I'm going to have it analysed,
and if it turns out what I think it is, I'm going
to work it. And if father hadn't had such a long name,
I should call it the Nehemiah Lapham Mineral Paint.
But, any rate, every barrel of it, and every keg,
and every bottle, and every package, big or little,
has got to have the initials and figures N.L.f. 1835,
S.L.t. 1855, on it. Father found it in 1835, and I tried it
in 1855.'"
"'S.T.--1860--X.' business," said Bartley.
"Yes," said Lapham, "but I hadn't heard of Plantation
Bitters then, and I hadn't seen any of the fellow's labels.
I set to work and I got a man down from Boston; and I
carried him out to the farm, and he analysed it--made
a regular Job of it. Well, sir, we built a kiln, and we
kept a lot of that paint-ore red-hot for forty-eight hours;
kept the Kanuck and his family up, firing. The presence
of iron in the ore showed with the magnet from the start;
and when he came to test it, he found out that it
contained about seventy-five per cent.
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