"Tubal Cain first," said Fergus. "He seems to have been the first of the crew."
"It was not he who found out witty inventions," said Fanchon, in a mock aside.
"I should begin with Archimedes," said Uncle Fritz.
"Excellent!" said Fergus; "and then may we not burn up old Fogarty's barn with burning-glasses?"
The children dislike Fogarty, and his barn is an eyesore to them. It stands just beyond the hedge of the Lady Oliver garden.
"I thank Archimedes every time I take a warm bath. Did he not invent hot baths?"
"What nonsense! He was killed by Caligula in one."
"You shall not talk such stuff.—Uncle Fritz, what books shall I bring you?"
It would seem as if, perhaps, Uncle Fritz had led the conversation in the direction it had taken. At least it proved that, all together on the rolling book-rack which Mr. Perkins gave him, were the account of Archimedes in the Cyclopædia Britannica, the account in the French Universal Biography, the life in La Rousse's Cyclopædia, Plutarch's Lives, and a volume of Livy in the Latin. From these together, Uncle Fritz, and the boys and girls whom he selected, made out this little history of Archimedes.