Part 5 (1/2)
”You have the worst of it, son Experience is a great teacher, they say Let it help you not to do such a foolish thing again”
Theo ratefully He still felt weak and shaken and he was thankful not to have his fault rubbed in
During the long hours of the long days that followed the lad had many an opportunity to put his unselfish resolutions into practise He insisted that his father and Mr Croyden go off on the long traether, and during their absence he remained with Franz, as very kind to hi him Now he fashi+oned for the boy's amusement a miniature birch-bark canoe; now he showed his of alder Sometimes he whittled wonderful whistles and toys from bits of wood; sometimes made tiny bows and arrows or snowshoes His resources seeht ca Theo was always carried into the living-room of the cabin, and while he lay on the couch before the fire he would listen to the tale of the day's adventures This bedtime hour was the best in the whole day
At last there ca noisily down upon the roof The as blowing hard and sheets of rain drenched the s
”There'll be no fishi+ng to-day,” announced Dr Swift after breakfast ”Instead Manuel is going out over the carry for provisions, and before he goes I must write some letters for him to take In the meantime Mr Croyden wants to know if you would like to have him come in and talk with you for a while?”
”Like it!” was the delighted exclamation
”I believe I hear him now Yes, here he is Come in, Croyden!” called the Doctor heartily ”Our patient says he will be glad to see you”
”Glad? I should say I should!”
Mr Croyden chuckled
”I don't know that any audience ever gave me such a royal welcome before,” he declared with a, sonny? Able to talk Greek pottery?”
”Able to hear you talk it,” Theo answered instantly
”I a you about Chinese and japanese pottery instead”
”That will be fine”
”Very well, we'll begin our lecture right away, since the audience seems to be assembled,” observed Mr Croyden merrily ”Not only have you a private physician but a private lecturer, you see My, but you are a royal personage! One thing will be very satisfactory about this audience No matter whether it likes my talk or not it can't run away”
There was a peal of laughter from Theo
In thedown in a coan his story
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV
MR CROYDEN'S STORY
”Hundreds and hundreds of years ago,” said Mr Croyden, ”while the Egyptians, assyrians, Greeks, and Ro, the Chinese, inside their great walled country, were busy with the same task In fact as far back as two thousand years before Christ the Chinese were fa earthenware of such fine quality that it was difficult to tell whether it was pottery or porcelain For the two are quite different, you h to say that pottery is thick and porcelain thin, for much of the Chinese and japanese pottery is very thin indeed The difference lies in the clay itself, of which the ware is et that Pottery is an opaque ware composed of various combinations of clay which afterward enuine porcelain is made from a mixture of quite different materials--a mixture of decomposed feldspar known as kaolin, and petuntse”
Mr Croyden paused a moment
”There are of course so-called porcelains redients; but we call them soft paste chinas, and do not rate them as true porcelains Only a hard paste, or kaolin ware, is acknowledged by experts to be genuine porcelain Now all this sounds very siether in the right proportions, laze of some sort the Chinese made their porcelain, and very beautiful porcelain it was Some day I will tell you more about it This porcelain was not only very hard but was seht one could see the glow through it It was not, of course, transparent like glass These two qualities of hardness and translucence help us to distinguish porcelain froain Mr Croyden stopped