FORE:Mamie was thirsty. She scornfully refused a suggestion of soda-water; nothing would content her but a certain fruit salt that came from a certain place some way off. She was quite sure that she could not do without it, and that unless the salt was forthcoming she would have a dreadful headache in the morning.Improvements, which have totally changed machine fitting during thirty years past, have been of a character to dispense in a great measure with hand skill, and supplant it with what may be termed mental skill. The mere physical effect produced by a man's hands has steadily diminished in value, until it has now almost come to be reckoned in foot-pounds; but the necessity [166] for practical knowledge instead of being diminished is increased.