“Sixteen years old was Uzziah when he began to reign.”
“Just a year older than Dick and Will,—and only think how much more he knew!” said Robert Rand, so honestly even Mr. Vance smiled.
“Was knowing so much the cause of his prosperity, Robert? Read the fifth verse.”
“As long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.”
“Do you suppose the Jews invented the engines of war mentioned in the fifteenth verse?” interrupted Will.
“Possibly.”
“It seems we made a mistake when we named our Base Ball Club. It’s the Catapulta, you know; but the catapultæ were used for casting darts, and the balistæ for stones. Sometimes the stones weighed three hundred pounds. Rather awkward things, compared with weapons of war now.”
“Yes,” said Mr. Vance. “Men have spent a great deal of money and genius to perfect the art of killing each other. But some day—”
“Josephus says,” interposed Will, “that engines of this sort were used with tremendous effect in the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans. They would discharge stones to the distance of two furlongs. There was an elastic bar, you see, bent back by a screw or cable, with a trigger to set it free, and a sort of spoon towards the top to fling the stones. At the siege of Jotapa, they were sent with such force as to break down the battlements and carry away the angles of the towers. Both sides used them at the siege of Jerusalem.”
Here Tom Lawrence puckered up his mouth and rolled his eyes around in such mock amazement that a broad smile over-spread Bill Finnegan’s freckled face, and Jack Mullin giggled outright.