aste.'"

The boys seemed to be satisfied with this explanation.

"Uncle, didn't you see at the Centennial some funny little figures
representing all sorts of London street-people?" asked Will.

"Yes, and I brought one with me, I think. Ah! here's one," he said,
showing them a droll little man about four inches high, "and it looks
very like a London cabman--or 'cabby,' as he is called."

"He's very homely," said Matie. "Where was he made, Uncle Jack?"

Her uncle turned the figure over, and, looking at a small round
impression on the under side, answered: "At the Royal Worcester Works
in England, where some of the best of modern porcelain has been made."

"Is that hard paste or soft, Uncle Jack?" asked Willie, while Al, as if
inclined to test the matter, began a search in his pockets for a knife.

"This is hard paste porcelain; it is 'translucent,'--that is, it shows
the light through," and he held the little cabman before the lamp.

"Here's another piece from the same factory," continued he, selecting a
second specimen from the cabinet. "This is a copy of the Chinese
'conventional dog,' made of blue 'crackle-ware.' You see, the glaze is
cracked all over the surface," he added.

"Who ever saw a blue dog?" cried Matie.

"In life, no one, my dear; but there are many things in Chinese art
that are not much like living objects."

[Illustration: DRESDEN CHINA.]

"I suppose you have all heard of Dresden china," presently continued
her uncle.

"Oh yes, sir!" cried Al. "Aunt Susie had a Dresden tea-pot that
belonged to her grandmother, and she said the tea always tasted better
out of it than from anything else."

"Well, here is an excellent French copy of an old Dresden figure. It is
a pretty flower-girl. See how gracefully she reaches for a nosegay from
her basket. I have seen bouquets of Dresden porcelain that you could
hardly distinguish from real flowers," said Uncle Jack.

"You'd hardly think that such a beautiful thing was made from common
earth," said Will.

"Nor is it," said his uncle. "This kind of china is made from a very
fine and very rare clay that, for a long time, was found only in China
and the Corean islands; but about a hundred and sixty years ago, a
noted chemist of Meissen, in Saxony, named Boettcher, discovered a bed
of it there, and manufactured the first true porcelain made in Europe,"
said Uncle Jack.

[Illustration: TERRA COTTA VASE.]

"Why couldn't they get the fine clay from China