the two could talk back and forth and hear one another's
voices without difficulty, although ten full months of hard work was
necessary before they were able to understand what was said. It was not
until after this long stretch of patient toil that Watson unmistakably
heard Mr. Bell say one day, '_Mr. Watson, please come here, I want
you._' The message was a very ordinary, untheatrical one for a moment
so significant but neither of the enthusiasts heeded that. The
thrilling fact was that the words had come clear-cut over the wire."

"Gee!" broke in Laurie.

"It certainly must have been a dramatic moment," Mr. Hazen agreed. "Mr.
Bell, now convinced beyond all doubt of the value of his idea, hired
two rooms at a cheap boarding-house situated at Number 5 Exeter Place,
Boston. In one of these he slept and in the other he equipped a
laboratory. Watson connected these rooms by a wire and afterward all
Mr. Bell's experimenting was done here instead of at the Williams's
shop. It was at the Exeter Place rooms that this first wonderful
message came to Watson's ears. From this period on the telephone took
rapid strides forward. By the summer of 1876, it had been improved
until a simple sentence was understandable if carefully repeated three
or four times."

"Repeated three or four times!" gasped Laurie in dismay.

The tutor smiled at the boy's incredulousness.

"You forget we are not dealing with a finished product," said he
gently. "I am a little afraid you would have been less patient with the
imperfections of an infant invention than were Bell and Watson."

"I know I should," was the honest retort.

"The telephone was a very delicate instrument to perfect," explained
Mr. Hazen. "Always remember that. An inventor must not only be a man
who has unshaken faith in his idea but he must also have the courage to
cling stubbornly to his belief through every sort of mechanical
vicissitude. This Mr. Bell did. June of 1876 was the year of the great
Centennial at Philadelphia, the year that marked the first century of
our country's progress. As the exhibition was to be one symbolic of our
national development in every line, Mr. Bell decided to show his
telephone there; to this end he set Watson, who was still at the
Williams's shop, to making exhibition telephones of the two varieties
they had thus far worked out."

"I'll bet Watson was almighty proud of his job," Ted interrupted.

"I fancy he was and certainly he had a right to