At the most exciting moment, near the close of the reading,
Agamemnon, with an expression of terror, pulled Solomon John
aside.
"I have suddenly remembered where I read about the 'fulminating
paste' we made.
It was in the preface to 'Woodstock,' and I have been round to
borrow the book to read the directions over again, because I was
afraid about the 'paste' going off. READ THIS QUICKLY! and tell
me, Where is the fulminating paste? "
Solomon John was busy winding some covers of paper over a little
parcel. It contained chlorate of potash and sulphur mixed. A
friend had told him of the composition. The more thicknesses of
paper you put round it the louder it would go off. You must pound
it with a hammer. Solomon John felt it must be perfectly safe, as
his mother had taken potash for a medicine.
He still held the parcel as he read from Agamemnon's book: "This
paste, when it has lain together about twenty-six hours, will of
itself take fire, and burn all the sulphur away with a blue flame
and a bad smell."
"Where is the paste?" repeated Solomon John, in terror.
"We made it just twenty-six hours ago," said Agamemnon.
"We put it on the piazza," exclaimed Solomon John, rapidly
recalling the facts, "and it is in front of our mother's feet!"
He hastened to snatch the paste away before it should take fire,
flinging aside the packet in his hurry. Agamemnon, jumping upon
the piazza at the same moment, trod upon the paper parcel, which
exploded at once with the shock, and he fell to the ground, while
at the same moment the paste "fulminated" into a blue flame
directly in front of Mrs.
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