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20 THE FIRST CHILD TO LEAVE THE HOUSE

- - - - - - - - - x x - - - - - - - - THE FIRST CHILD TO LEAVE THE HOUSE - 1 IT WAS Mr. C. A. Persson who had persuaded Karl Oskar to buy it. The storekeeper ordered all kinds ofnew inventions and displayed them in his shop, and one after another he palmed them offon the settlers. But this one appeared to be a most useful invention. Klas Albert promised to assemble it himself and show how to use it. He brought it one dark fall evening and everyone gathered around the rectangular wooden box. Karl Oskar wanted to surprise his children and had not mentioned the purchase to them. He acted as ifhe didn't know what was in the box. Mr. Persson broke open the box and displayed an object, the like of which had never been seen before in this house-a brass stand, a foot and a halfhigh, which the storekeeper placed on the table. It stood there quite firmly on its solid, round base. Marta had already guessed that Father had bought some useful kitchen utensil but she could not figure out what this brass stand could be used for. She could neither cut nor cook with it. It seemed to have no purpose. But it was beautiful, with its greenish tint, perhaps it was meant as a table decoration. "What kind ofknickknack have you brought, Klas Albert?" she asked. "Wait till I'm ready-then you'll see something!" And from the box the Center City merchant drew out several more strange objects: a porcelain globe, a glass pipe a foot long, and at last a kind of flask filled with a transparent fluid. Each object was exceedingly fragile and Klas Albert was most careful in handling them. His audience, standing in a circle around him, realized that the pieces must in some way be put together. "Wait till I'm ready! Then you'll understand!" Mr. Persson opened a lid over an enlargement at the upper end of the brass stand, and into this hole he poured the white fluid from the flask. Then he 167 168 THE LAST LETTER HOME slowly turned a screw fastened to the stand. No one could guess the purpose of this screw. But it appeared that something was going to happen. And so it did. Klas Albert struck a match and held it over the brass stand. A flame leaped up from its upper end-the brass stand was burning! The circle of spectators broke apart; they all stepped back. What was this? Everyone in this house had been instructed to handle fire most carefully; Father had told them to stamp out any flame or spark outside the fireplace. Yet here he stood and smiled while Klas Albert appeared to be trying to set the house on fire! A tall flame burned lustily at the upper end ofthe brass stand, but Mr. Persson remained calm. He picked up the glass pipe and placed it around the flame, enclosing it. He then placed the porcelain globe on a ring and turned the screw again. The tall flame withdrew a little and stopped smoking. He kept turning the screw until the flame burned evenly inside the pipe. A dear, warm light spread through the whole kitchen. The flame in the pipe spread its light to the farthest corner. And now Karl Oskar said in a solemn voice, "Tonight we have a new light in our house-I have bought a kerosene lamp." He was very much pleased with the surprise he could read in his children's faces. And Klas Albert was even more pleased; he looked as if he had JUSt performed a very difficult magician's trick. "How clever you are!" exclaimed Marta. "What do you do to make it light -" up. Eagerly Klas Albert showed the how the trick worked: The brass stand formed the foot of the lamp. This enlargement held the fluid that burned-it was called the oil chamber. Into the oil he had stuck some twisted yarn, called the wick, and the other end of the wick came up into the glass pipe. The yarn kept burning because it was soaked in oil and was being fed from the oil chamber . By turning the screw he could the flame, make it strong or weak, any way he wanted it. The glass protected the flame and the porcelain globe softened the light. "As simple as that!" said Klas Albert, acting as if it were the easiest thing in the world to make a...