66 flistory of Gutta-Percha Withe.

 

fore them have learned, so that we come into their
property, as it were; and, after being taught of
them, have only to begin our discoveries from where
they leave off. In geography, for instance, what a
number of voyages and journeys have had to be
made, and books to record them written; then
what a number of these books to be read, and the
facts gathered out of them, before a single map
could be drawn, not to say a geography book
printed! Whereas now he could learn a multitude
of things about the various countries, their peoples
and animals and plants, their mountains and rivers
and lakes and cities, without having set his foot be-
yond the parish in which he was born, And so
with everything else after its kind. But it is more
of what Willie learned to do than what he learned
to know that I have to treat.

When he went to school, his father made him a
present of a pocket-knife. He had had one before,
but not a very good one; and this, having three
blades, all very sharp, he found a wonderful trea-
sure of recourse. His father also bought him a
nice new slate.

Now there was another handy boy at school, a
couple of years older than Willie, whose father was
acarpenter. He had cut on the frame of his slate,
not his initials only, but his whole name and ad-
dress,— Alexander Spelman, Priory Leas. Willie
thought how nice it would be with his new knife