e so hard perhaps as his partner Mr. Mathematics. And yet
his workmen, who were all called _ciphers_, One, Two, Three, Four, Five,
Six, Seven, Eight and Nine, never complained of their master. They said
that they always received their just due, and as long as they kept in
their own proper place, had never any reason to grumble.

Mr. Mathematics was a great philosopher, and shut himself up a good
deal, that he might have leisure to invent new and curious machines. He
did not show himself to customers so often as Mr. Arithmetic, who was
the soul of the business, keeping all the workmen in order, scarcely
ever out of his shop, and ready to serve all the world.

The Ironmongery establishment was on the top of a steep cliff that rose
on the right side of the town of Education, just beyond Mr. Reading's
large shop; and thither, on that fine summer's day, Dick and Pride
wended their way.

"We must go up here," observed Dick, as they reached a narrow staircase
cut in the cliff, and known by the name of the Multiplication stairs. I
should not wonder if my readers had run up it many a time; if so, I need
not tell them that it consists of twelve flights of steps, with twelve
steps in every flight; that the first and second are so easy that a baby
might almost toddle up them; that the two next are rather more steep,
while the fifth is easier again; that the seventh and eighth are perhaps
the worst; while the tenth flight quite tempts one to run, it is so
delightfully smooth!

Dick was so active and vigorous a boy, that he mounted up to the top
without even stopping to take breath. He had thence a fine view of the
distant landscape; but what interested him most was to look down on the
town which lay at his feet, and see the gilded names of the different
Ologies shining on the fronts of their dwellings. There was Chemistry's
beautiful shop too in view, with lovely-coloured glass jars in its
windows; and Botany's vast garden not far off, bright with the hues of a
thousand flowers. A fine place to look at, and a good place to dwell in,
is this town of Education.

An immense building was now before Dick, though rather dull and
unattractive in appearance; the names of Messrs. Arithmetic and
Mathematics were in large black letters over the door. Dick entered,
followed by Pride, and viewed with astonishment the vast variety of iron
utensils around him. He could scarcely stop to look at the simple
grates, called sums, which were the th