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 to put its money into the project in sums which ran all the way from one share at ten dollars to ten shares, or even a hundred shares. The price of the shares had been made low for a benevolent reason, or so Crane informed his neighbors—so that nobody in Rainbow need be barred from some participation in this new prosperity which was descending upon their town.

The first week of the financing saw twenty thousand dollars’ worth of the new company’s securities disposed of. The total amount of stock to be sold, by Crane’s advice, was set at fifty thousand dollars instead of the twenty-five Verry had estimated to be necessary. It was like Crane—he was now a man who did things in a big way…. But even Angus Burke, under whose doubting and analytical eye a project must demonstrate itself to be of the soundest, had no word to utter against the Rainbow Novelties Company—indeed he invested a few hundred dollars, which represented his savings, in the stock. He went further, advising Henry G. Woodhouse to give the company his countenance, and, while awaiting his answer, a block of ten thousand dollars was set aside for him.

As the days passed it seemed that every man, woman, and child in Rainbow was destined to become a stockholder—that the Novelties Company was to be a real community project. Even