“I will give you two dollars and fifty cents for the picture.”

“Done,” said he.  “Where shall I send it?”

I gave him my city address, and paid the money.  As he accompanied me to the door, he said:  “If you would like more of these pictures, I will sell you one dozen for eighteen dollars, or the whole lot of one hundred, just finished—­and there will be no more of them painted—­for one hundred dollars.”  I told him one was all I wanted, and departed.  I carried the picture home that afternoon, and in the evening exhibited it at our club-room, and made known my scheme for raising the money we needed by getting up a raffle with this painting as the prize; one hundred tickets at the low price of two dollars each.  The reversible landscape was set up, first one way and then the other, a great many times, and created quite a sensation.

“I don’t think it’s worth the half of two hundred dollars,” said Mr. Buckby, our president, “but as the money is for the use of our Association, I don’t mind that.  But my objection to the scheme is that, if I should gain the prize, I should be laughed at by all my fellow-members:  for, to tell the truth, I think that painting is a good deal more funny than otherwise.  It’s not what I call high art.”

The other members generally agreed with him.  They were very much amused by the picture, but they did not care to possess it, imagining that those who ridiculed it might also ridicule its owner.  This opposition discouraged me, and I retired to reflect.  In about five minutes I returned to the company, which had now greatly increased, as it was one of our regular meeting nights, and I asked if they would consent to this raffle if I would engage that the winner of the picture should not be laughed at by any other member.

“How will you guarantee that?” asked Mr. Buckby.

“I will put the matter in the hands of the Association,” I answered.  “If, after the raffle is over, a majority of the members shall decide that any of us have reason to laugh at the winner of this painting, I will refund all the money paid for tickets.”

There was something in this proposition which aroused the curiosity of my fellow-firemen; and when the meeting was called to order, a resolution was adopted that we would have the raffle, and that the management of it should be placed in my hands, subject to the conditions mentioned above.  There were a good many surmises as to what I was going to do to keep the people from laughing at the prize-winner, the general opinion being that I intended to have the picture altered so that it would be like an ordinary landscape, and not reversible.  But the affair was something novel, and promised to put the much-needed money into our treasury; and several gentlemen assured me that they would make it their business to see that every member took a ticket, one generous man promising, in the interests of the Association, to present them to such of the few members as might decline to buy them for themselves.  This offer was made in consequence of my insistance that every one of us should have a chance in the raffle.