pose.

This done the pitch was scored across and across, till it was divided
into squares, with little channels between them, so that the polishing
powder and water might run freely between; then a final pressure was
given upon the mirror and the implement was left to harden till the next
day.

"Now for a few hours' polishing," said Uncle Richard the next morning,
as he took up the curved pitch tool and moistened it, no longer with
emery, but with fine moistened rouge; "and if I am successful in
slightly graduating off the sides here, and flattening them in an
infinitesimal degree, we shall have a good reflector for our future
work."

But upon testing it the result that evening was not considered
satisfactory. There were several zones to be corrected.

It was the same the next day, and the next. But on the fourth Uncle
Richard cried "Hold: enough! I think that is as good as an amateur can
make a speculum, and we'll be content."

That night Tom slept so soundly that he did not dream till morning, and
then it was of the sun resenting being looked at, and burning his cheek,
which possessed some fact, for the blind was a little drawn on one side,
and the bright rays were full upon his face.

"All that time spent in making the reflector!" thought Tom; "and all
that work. I wonder what the next bit will be."

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"Now, uncle, what's the next thing to be done?" said Tom at breakfast
that morning.

"I think we may begin the body of the telescope now, Tom," said his
uncle.

"The body?"

"Yes; the speculum is what we might call the life of the whole
instrument, and the rest will be simplicity itself. We've got to bring
a little mechanical work to bear, and the thing is done."

"But it will want a lot of glasses fixed about in a big tube, won't it?"

"No; nothing but the flat and eye-pieces, and I have the lenses to make
these. By the way, I have some letters to write, and shall be busy all
the morning. Your uncle seems to be still unwell, and I must write to
him, for one thing. I tell you what I want done. We have no place
there for keeping papers or drawings in, and where one can sit down and
write at times, and lock up afterwards. I've been thinking that I'll
have the big old bureau desk with its drawers taken out of the study,
and carried up into the laboratory. It can stand beneath the shelves on
the right of the east window; and you might take up a chair or two, and
a piece of o