49

VI MORE GUESTS 60

VII MR. LAURIE 76

VIII DIPLOMACY AND ITS RESULTS 94

IX THE STORY OF THE FIRST TELEPHONE 106

X WHAT CAME AFTERWARD 122

XI THE REST OF THE STORY 141

XII CONSPIRATORS 152

XIII WHAT TED HEARD 163

XIV THE FERNALDS WIN THEIR POINT 173

XV WHAT CAME OF THE PLOT 189

XVI ANOTHER CALAMITY 199

XVII SURPRISES 213

ILLUSTRATIONS

"Would you like to go to college if you could?" persisted the
elder man _Frontispiece_

"You can't be spreadin' wires an' jars an' things round my
room!" protested Mr. Turner Page 9

Soon he came within sight of the shack which stood at the
water's edge " 27

He heard an answering shout and a second later saw Ted Turner
dash through the pines " 88

TED AND THE TELEPHONE

CHAPTER I

AN UNHERALDED CHAMPION

Ted Turner lived at Freeman's Falls, a sleepy little town on the bank
of a small New Hampshire river. There were cotton mills in the town; in
fact, had there not been probably no town would have existed. The mills
had not been attracted to the town; the town had arisen because of the
mills. The river was responsible for the whole thing, for its swift
current and foaming cascades had brought the mills, and the mills in
turn had brought the village.

Ted's father was a shipping clerk in one of the factories and his
two older sisters were employed there also. Some day Ted himself
expected to enter the great brick buildings, as the boys of the town
usually did, and work his way up. Perhaps in time he might become a
superintendent or even one of the firm. Who could tell? Such miracles
did happen. Not that Ted Turner preferred a life in the cotton mills
to any other career. Not at all. Deep down in his soul he detested
the humming, panting, noisy place with its clatter of wheels, its
monotonous piecework, and its limited horizon. But what