e determined to carry it out.

"Rap-a-tap, tap," sounded briskly at the library door after supper.
"Come in," was the response, and in bounded the three children, their
faces lighted up with smiles at the prospect of spending an evening
with Uncle Jack.

"Welcome, youngsters," said he, in a cheery tone. "But you look as if
you were expecting something; what is it?"

"Oh, Uncle Jack, we want you to tell us all about pottery," cried the
boys.

"Yes, please do," chimed in Matie.

"All about pottery? Why, my dear children, that's very like asking me
to tell you all about the whole civilized world, for a complete history
of one would be almost a history of the other; and I could hardly do
that, you know," said Uncle Jack, with a smile.

"Willie said you could talk about pottery all night," cried Matie.

"And so I might, dear, and not get further than the ABC of its history,
after all," answered Uncle Jack.

"But how many kinds are there, uncle?" asked Will.

"That question demands an answer that must teach something," said Uncle
Jack. "There are two general kinds."

"Why, I saw a thousand kinds at the Centennial," interrupted Al, with a
wise look.

[Illustration: CHINESE DOG (ROYAL WORCESTER PORCELAIN)]

"That may be," said his uncle. "But then, too, you saw a thousand kinds
of people, and yet all those people were either men or women; so all
pottery comes under the two general classes of 'hard paste' and 'soft
paste.'"

"Why, none of it was soft, Uncle Jack, was it? I thought it was all
baked hard," said Will, looking incredulous.

[Illustration: TEA-STAND (ROYAL WORCESTER PORCELAIN)]

"So all pottery _is_ baked hard, for, until it is made hard by firing,
it is only wet clay and sand,--in pretty shapes, perhaps, but not fit
for any use or ornament,--and is not yet pottery."

"Then why is it called 'soft?'"

"You've seen pieces of stone that you could grind to powder under your
heel? You'd call them 'soft.' Other pieces you couldn't crush, and
you'd call them 'hard.' That is something like what is meant by 'hard'
and 'soft' applied to pottery,--at least, 'soft' doesn't mean soft like
putty."

"But if it's all baked, why isn't it all hard alike?" asked Will.

"Because different clays are used, and different degrees of heat
applied. At one time we get a kind of pottery that can be scratched
with a knife, at another a ware too hard to be so scratched; the one is
called 'soft paste' and the other 'hard p