The Board of Health gave
them the price of opening one grave for their share, and tore down
the rear tenements. A year or two later I travelled to Europe on
an ocean steamer with the treasurer of that graveyard concern. We
were ten days on the way, and I am afraid he did not have altogether
a good time of it. The ghost of the Barracks would keep rising out
of the deep before us, sitting there in our steamer chairs, from
whichever quarter the wind blew. I suppose he took it as a victory
when the Court of Appeals decided upon a technicality that the
Barracks should not have been destroyed; but so did I, for they were
down by that time. The city could afford to pay. We were paying
for our own neglect, and it was a good lesson.
I have said more than once in these pages that I am not good
at figuring, and I am not; a child could do better. For that very
reason I am going to claim full credit for every time I do a sum
right. It may not happen again. Twice during that spell, curiously
enough, did I downright distinguish myself in that line. I shall
never be able to tell you how; I only know that I did it.
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