The Story of Porcelain Part 15

"I expect so, son. However, I shall not begrudge that sort of a welcome now, for I feel like a fighting c.o.c.k."

"You really are rested, aren't you, Father?"

"I am like another man," was the vehement reply. "I was about all in when we went into camp. Thanks to you and Mr. Croyden I have had a fine chance to pull myself together and prepare for whatever comes next. You have been very thoughtful and unselfish, Theo, in leaving me free to get all I could out of my vacation. It has meant everything."

"I wanted to help you, Dad."

"You've certainly proved that, my boy. I've appreciated every bit of it."

A quick glance pa.s.sed between the two.

They understood each other very well, Theo and his father.

"Here is Mr. Croyden," observed Theo. "He has been getting off some mail and telegrams."

"That is precisely what I must do," declared the Doctor rising. "I'll leave you to have one of your china-making talks while I am gone."

As the Doctor pa.s.sed through into the next car Mr. Croyden sauntered down the aisle and dropped into the seat he had just vacated.

"There," announced the merchant with a satisfied sigh, "I have done my duty. I have sent off three telegrams and a lot of letters. How funny it seems to get busy after being so idle! Next week will see us all back at the grind, I suppose, and rus.h.i.+ng about as if we had never been away."

"Are you sorry?"

"No," was the hearty response. "I like to play when I play; but I like also to work. I enjoy my business very much. It is an interesting and useful one, and I like to think that in my small way I am helping to furnish the world with things that are necessary, and tend toward comfort and convenience as well as toward beauty. People cannot get on without dishes--you and I have proved that."

"Not unless we all go back to being savages," said Theo humorously.

"We shall not do that, I hope," returned Mr. Croyden gravely. "Each century should see the race farther ahead--a more honest, kindlier, Christian nation. That is the motto we must bring with us out of this war. Not more territory, more money, more power; but truer manhood and purer souls. If the conflict does this for our people all the sacrifice and loss of life it has meant will not have been in vain. Out of the wreck a better America should arise, and we each must help it to arise--you as well as I, for we need not only good men and women but good boys and girls, if we are to have a fine country."

"A boy can't do much toward it, I'm afraid," Theo said.

"On the contrary, a boy can do a great deal," replied Mr. Croyden. "It is the boys of to-day who are going to be the men of to-morrow; and there is no such thing as suddenly becoming a good man, any more than there is such a thing as a seed suddenly becoming a full-blown plant.

Everything has to grow, and grow slowly, too. So if you wish to be a wise, honest citizen who will help forward this glorious country we all love so much, you want to be setting about it right now, you and every other boy. And you want to go at the work earnestly, too, for you will be a man before you know it."

"It looks a long way off to me now," mused Theo.

"Such things always do; but time flies pretty fast. You will find yourself in college the next thing you know; and after that you will be beginning to plan your career. What are you going to be, Theo?"

"I don't know, sir," was the uncertain answer. "I'd just like to do something that really needs to be done; something that people cannot get on without."

"That is a splendid ambition," came heartily from Mr. Croyden. "I thought perhaps you'd be thinking of taking up your father's job."

"I be a surgeon!" gasped Theo.

"Why not?"

"Oh, because I'd be no good at it," the boy said. "I should never know what to do with sick people. I'd be scared to death. It seems to me now that I would rather go into making something; but I do not just know what."

"You want to be a business man, eh?"

"That is what I'd rather do."

"Humph!"

There was an interval of silence; then Mr. Croyden said:

"Well, if when you are through your education, Theo, we are out of this war and you are still of the same mind, you come to me. Who knows but you might end your days in my factories?"

The boy's eyes sparkled.

"Croyden and Swift--how would that sound?"

"It would sound all right," chuckled Theo, "but I am afraid the sound would be the best part of it. Why, I'd never be able to learn all you know about china if I lived to be a hundred years old."

"Aren't you learning things about china right now? Haven't you already learned about the pottery and porcelain of almost every nation under the sun?"

"I have liked to have you tell me about it," replied Theo modestly.

"Well, isn't that making a beginning?" queried the pottery merchant. "We have discussed the china output of almost every country, haven't we?"

Theo reflected.

"All the big countries except England."

"How did we happen to leave England out?"

"I guess you did not have time to get round to England," answered Theo. "Still all the time isn't gone yet, you know; you might tell me about England now."

They both laughed.

"I believe you are something of a diplomat, Theo," observed Mr. Croyden. "You are either a diplomat or you are a schemer.

Sometimes it is very hard to tell the one from the other. In either case you seem determined to give me no peace, so I fancy I may as well tell you about English porcelain and have done with it. If I do not do it now I shall have to do it some other time, I suppose."

"I suppose you will," came delightedly from Theo.

"Well, here goes, then!"

The elder man settled back into a comfortable position and Theo wriggled contentedly into the opposite corner of the seat.

"As you can well understand," began Mr. Croyden, "the discovery of kaolin set England as eagerly to experimenting at porcelain-making as it had the other nations. Contrary, however, to other countries the English Government lent no helping hand to the industry, offering neither money nor inducements to those who would take it up. Therefore only those persons who were sufficiently interested in the new venture, and could afford to make the attempt with their own capital, dared go into it. Fortunately there were at hand some of these ambitious manufacturers. Their early experiences are interesting not so much because of the quality of their work though much of it was good, as because they were the forerunners of later workers. The paste they used was not as fine as that of the Chinese or j.a.panese; or in fact, that of the early Dresden or Sevres ware. Gradually, however, it became better, until now--although England turns out almost no true porcelain, that is, the scientifically blended kaolin and petuntse clays--she makes some of the most beautiful and durable china manufactured anywhere."

"What is it made of?" inquired Theo, much puzzled.

"Different combinations of kaolin clays and phosphates; a ware which in the porcelain trade is known as bone china," replied Mr. Croyden.

"The phosphate of lime that is mixed with the kaolin renders the body of the ware more porous and elastic. On such china the glaze does not blend with the body and become an actual part of it as is the case with a true porcelain, but on the contrary is an outer coating which can be scratched through. But bone china is very strong, and does not chip as does a more brittle variety. For that reason where wear and durability are desired it is often preferred."

Mr. Croyden stopped a second.

"When I tell you these facts you must not think I am crying down the English wares," he said. "I could show you beautiful varieties of English porcelain. I merely wish you to understand that it has not the qualities of the Chinese, j.a.panese, Sevres, Dresden, or even the more modern Limoges ware. But what it loses in delicacy and translucence it makes up in strength, and perhaps after all strength is as desirable as any other quality."