tried making earthenware of their own,"
speculated Theo.

"They did," was Mr. Croyden's prompt reply, "and of that I will tell
you some other day. But there is one interesting fact in connection
with these early tea sets. Remember that if ever you see in a museum
or private house a tea set which you are told came over in the
_Mayflower_ nothing of the sort could have happened. The Pilgrims
landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620, and it was not until from 1660 to
1770 that tea and tea sets became general in England. By that time the
Pilgrim Fathers, and more especially the Pilgrim Mothers, were far
across the ocean."

Mr. Croyden moved toward the door.

"Some one may have brought tea sets to them but they never carried
them in the _Mayflower_," he concluded. "Now I have talked too much
for one morning, and it is lunch time. Listen, there is the horn! And
see, Theo, the rain has ceased and the sun come out."

"I hadn't thought of the weather," smiled Theo. "I had not thought of
anything, I guess, but what you were telling me. You will come again,
sir?"

"Surely!"

"And you won't forget your promise to tell me about English pottery?"

"No indeed, son," was the cordial reply. "You are too good a listener
for me to forget."

[Illustration]

CHAPTER V

THE POTTER WHO BURNED HIS CHAIRS

It was not for some time that Mr. Croyden again had leisure for a
long talk with Theo, because with the return of pleasant weather he
and Dr. Swift went for a three days' canoe trip up Elk River, a small
stream emptying into the lake on which the camp stood. Dr. Swift had
thought of giving up this excursion, because it necessitated leaving
Theo for such a long time; but the boy was insistent that his father
should go.

"I won't be lonesome, Father," he protested. "Franz is here, and he
is as good as a vaudeville show; besides I can read, and whittle, and
write to Mother. The days will pass so quickly I shall not have time
to miss you. It would be too bad to have you stay in camp just for
me. I have made trouble enough already."

Perhaps it was because of Theo's genuine regret for what he had done
that Dr. Swift consented to carry out his original plan. The boy was
intensely sensitive, and any allusion to his accident, or any
interference with his father's pleasure because of it, immediately
brought a shadow of distress to his face. The Doctor was quick to
notice this fact; and eager, if possible, to avoid every reminde