r to-day he is one of the world's
greatest inventors.
Thomas was a sunny, laughing, little boy, and pretty, too, except when
he was trying to think how something was made; then he would scowl and
pucker up his mouth until you would hardly know him. He always wanted to
know how machinery worked and asked his father, or any one near by, to
explain it to him. Sometimes his father would get all tired out
answering questions, and to get rid of the little chap would say: "I
don't know." Then Thomas would stare at his father and say: "You don't
know! _Why_ don't you know?" Then, if Mr. Edison did not answer, Thomas
would perhaps run down by the water, along the tow-path for the canal.
There were shipyards by the water, and he would pick up the different
tools and ask the workmen what the name of each was, how it was used and
why it was used, and get in their way generally until they drove him
home. He built fine houses and tiny villages, with plank sidewalks, from
the bits of wood these ship-builders gave him. The belts and wheels in
the saw and grist mills pleased him. He watched them often. Once, in one
of the mills, he fell into a pile of wheat in a grain elevator and had
nearly smothered before he was found. Several times he fell into the
canal and came near drowning.
When Thomas was six years old, he watched a goose sitting on her eggs
and saw them hatch. He wanted to understand this strange thing better,
so he gathered all the goose and hen's eggs he could and made a big
nest in his father's barn. Then all of a sudden, he was missing. The
family rushed to the canal, the village, and the mills, and finally
found him sitting on the nest of eggs in the barn. He wanted to see if
he could hatch those eggs out!
The only person who did not get out of patience with Thomas was his
mother. He and she adored each other. She had been a school teacher and
was used to children. She saw that Thomas had a keen mind and was always
ready to explain things to him. When he went to school, the teacher did
not know what to make of his strange remarks and almost broke Thomas's
heart one day by telling the principal that she thought the little
Edison boy was "addled." Thomas ran home crying. He could not bear to go
again to the school, so his mother taught him at home. He had a
wonderful memory and must have paid close attention to what was said,
for he never had to be told a thing the second time. Thomas quite often
had his lessons wit
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