Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/199

Rh she seated herself, “we have just members enough for the offices, and just offices enough  for the members, so I don’t see how the I. I.’s  can increase. To-night we were to talk about coal, and I will ask Phil to begin by telling us  what he knows on the subject.”

“Oh, dear!” groaned Phil, “that won’t be much. Let’s see. There are different kinds of coal, the hard or anthracite, and the soft or  bit—bit—”

“Bituminous?” suggested Bert.

“Oh, yes! Bituminous. The bit-uminous has more oil in it, and is smokier. So people that live in cities where it is burned get black  all over themselves when they go out on the  street.”

“Yes,” interposed Sam. “When my father took me to Chicago with him, there was one  day that it was so thick in the air you couldn’t  see any distance at all, and when I went back  to the hotel to dinner, my nose was all covered  with black streaks.”

“I know how that is,” said Bess. “But go on, Phil.”

“We burn the hard coal here. Then they