“Presently. Sit down here by me, I want to show you something.”
The boy seated himself beside her.
“Here,” she said, producing the First Book in Geography, and opening upon a page of engravings in sections representing the five races of man.
“Oh-h-h!” exclaimed the boy in delight, as he took the volume from her hands and gazed with devouring eyes upon the fascinating page.
He had never seen a picture of an Indian, an Ethiopian, a Mongolian, or a Malay in all his life, and now he gazed in a breathless rapture upon these.
Pictures were almost unknown to him—the pictures in his grandmother’s old family Bible and the half-a-dozen little illustrations above the fables in Webster’s Spelling Book, being all that he had ever seen.
“Oh-h-h, you can’t think how much I do thank you for lending me this splendid book!” he exclaimed, with fervent gratitude.
“Oh, indeed, I am ever so much obliged to you for being so pleased with it! It makes me feel so happy, you know! But turn over the next page. Oh, there are ever so many more nice pictures in it!”
“Are there?” he asked, and immediately turned the page to discover more and more treasures—Esquimaux and white bears of the Arctic circle; elk, moose, and reindeer, and red Indians of the northern lakes and forests; seals, beavers, Canadians, New England farms, churches, school-houses, New York seaports, shipping, and warehouses; Western prairies, forests and rivers; Southern bays, isles, and cotton plantations.
“Oh! oh! oh!”