patents, which his
father had secured upon inventions, not near the equal of his.

There seemed no limit to his inventive powers. He made a locomotive
and then a steamboat, perfect in every part, even to the minutest,
using nothing but his knife, hammer, and a small chisel. He
constructed a clock with his jack-knife, which kept perfect time, and
the articles which he made were wonderfully stared at at fairs, and in
show windows, while Johnny modestly pegged away at some new idea. He
became a master of the art of telegraphy without assistance from any
one using merely a common school philosophy with which to acquire the
alphabet. He then made a couple of batteries, ran a line from his
window to a neighbor's, insulating it by means of the necks of some
bottles, taught the other boy the alphabet, and thus they amused
themselves sending messages back and forth.

Thus matters progressed until he was fifteen years of age, when he
came home one day, and lay down on the settee by his mother, and gave
a great sigh.

'What is the matter?' she inquired. 'I want to make something.'

'Why, then, don't you make it?'

'Because I don't know what it shall be; I've fixed up everything I can
think of.'

'And you are like Alexander, sighing for more worlds to conquer. Is
that it?'

'Not exactly, for there is plenty for one to do, if I could only find
out what it is.'

'Have you ever made a balloon?' The boy laughed.

'You were asking for the cat the other day, and wondering what had
become of her. I didn't tell you that the last I saw of her was
through the telescope, she being about two miles up in the clouds, and
going about fifty miles an hour.'

'I thought you looked as though you knew something about her,' replied
the mother, trying to speak reprovingly, and yet smiling in spite of
herself.

'Can't you tell me something to make?' finally asked the boy.

'Yes; there is something I have often thought of, and wonder why it
was not made long ago; but you are not smart enough to do it, Johnny.'

'Maybe not; but tell me what it is.'

'It is a man that shall go by steam!' The boy lay still several
minutes without speaking a word and then sprung up. 'By George! I'll
do it!' And he started out of the room, and was not seen again until
night. His mother felt no anxiety. She was pleased; for, when her boy
was at work, he was happy, and she knew that he had enough now, to
keep him engaged for months to come.

So it proved. H