tever he was, I take my hat off to
him because he began to study writing, spelling, and arithmetic when he
was fifty years old. That gets me!"

"Poor soul! He probably had no chance for an education when he was
younger," remarked Mrs. McGregor.

"No, he hadn't. But picture it! Jove! If I had gone that long without
books, and had been able to invent all sorts of things into the
bargain, darned if I wouldn't have stuck it out," Carl said.

"But you told us Arkwright became rich and was knighted," replied Mrs.
McGregor. "No doubt this resulted in his meeting educated people,
gentlemen and ladies, in whose company he felt ashamed, uncomfortable,
and at a disadvantage."

"I'd feel that way, wouldn't you?" nodded Mary. "I do feel so even when
I am with Uncle Frederick, and my teacher, and--and you, Mother."

"Don't include me, dear," protested her mother sadly. "Alas, I know
little enough. But it does help you to understand how that poor,
hard-working Richard Arkwright suffered. Often, I'll wager, he was
angry at himself for his lack of education even though it was not his
fault. I don't wonder, snubbed as he probably was at times, that he
determined he would learn something."

"His hard-earned education did not do him much good, Mother, for he
died when he was sixty," said Carl.

"Well, at least he lived long enough to see his success," Mary put in
brightly.

"He was luckier than Crompton," replied her brother.

"Oh, tell us about Crompton. Do you remember anything about him?" Mary
inquired.

"Crompton was one of the most important of the spinning inventors,"
continued Carl. "But he did not set out to be an inventor any more than
Arkwright did. To be sure he wasn't a barber or anything as ordinary as
that. He was a musician, a person of quite another sort, you see. His
family were better bred and started him out with a good education--the
very thing Arkwright lacked. Crompton might easily have mixed with the
class Arkwright wanted to mix with but he wasn't as good a mixer.
Instead of gossiping with everybody he met, as Arkwright had done,
Crompton kept by himself and lived quietly at home with his mother."

"A sensible lad!" Mrs. McGregor whispered.

"Maybe," grinned her son. "Still, it made people call Crompton
unsociable. I guess, though, most geniuses are that. They always seem
to be so in books; and Crompton certainly was a genius. He hadn't an
ounce of brain for business but he had no end of ideas; and it