trying.

One day he was mixing some rubber with sulphur. It slipped out of his
hand. It fell on the hot stove. But it did not melt. Goodyear was
happy at last. That night it was cold. Goodyear took the burned
piece of rubber out of doors, and nailed it to the kitchen door. When
morning came, he went and got it. It had not frozen.

He was now sure that he was on the right track. But he had to find out
how to mix and heat his rubber and sulphur. He was too poor to buy
rubber to try with. Nobody would lend him any more money. His family
had to live by the help of his friends. He had already sold almost
everything that he had. Now he had to sell his children's school-books
to get money to buy rubber with.

At last his rubber goods were made and sold. Poor men who had to stand
in the rain could now keep themselves dry. People could walk in the
wet with dry feet. A great many people are alive who would have died
if they had not been kept dry by India rubber.

You may count up, if you can, how many useful things are made of
rubber. We owe them all to one man. People laughed at Goodyear once.
But at last they praised him. To be "The India-rubber man" was
something to be proud of.

DOCTOR KANE IN THE FROZEN SEA.

[Illustration]

Kane was a doctor in one of the war ships of the United States. He had
sailed about the world a great deal.

When he heard that ships were to be sent into the icy seas of the
north, he asked to be sent along. He went the first time as a doctor.
Then he wanted to find out more about the frozen ocean. So he went
again as captain of a ship. His ship was called the "Advance."

Kane sailed into the icy seas. His ship was driven far into the ice by
a fu-ri-ous storm. She was crowded by ice-bergs. At one time she was
lifted clear out of the water. The ship seemed ready to fall over on
her side. But the ice let her down again. Then she was squeezed till
the men thought that she would be crushed like an egg shell At last
the storm stopped. Then came the awful cold. The ship was frozen into
the ice. The ice never let go of her. She was farther north than any
ship had ever been before. But she was so fast in the ice that she
never could get away.

In that part of the world it is night nearly all winter. For months
there was no sun at all. Daylight came again. It was now summer, but
it did not get warm. Doctor Kane took sleds, and went about on the ice
to see what he could see. The sleds were