“I am sure.”
“Tell them then that I love them well and embrace them all.”
“Tell them I wish them as good a top and as fine lead soldiers as those you gave me,” put in Emile.
“Take care, Emile,” cautioned his brother. “Uncle may put your lead soldiers in the book.”
“They will be there, they are there.”
CHAPTER XX
PRINTING
“AFTER a book is written, the author sends his work, his manuscript, to the printer, who is to reproduce it in printed letters and in as many copies as are desired.
“Picture to yourself fine and short metal sticks, on the end of each of which is carved in relief a letter of the alphabet. One of these sticks has an a on the end, another a b, another a c, etc. There are others which have a full-stop, a comma, a semi-colon; in fact, there are as many distinct kinds of these little metal pieces as there are letters and orthographic signs in our written language. Besides, each letter and each sign are represented a great many times. Let us take note, too, that all these characters are carved wrong side before; you will soon see the reason.
“A workman called a compositor has before him a stand of cases, of which each compartment is occupied by a single letter of the alphabet, or by an orthographic sign. The a’s are in such a compartment, the b’s in a second, the c’s in a third, and so on. The letters, furthermore, are not arranged in the case alphabetically. To shorten the work, they put in the compartments near to hand the letters that occur most frequently, such as the e’s, r’s, i’s, a’s; and they place in the more distant compartments the letters less often used, such as x’s and y’s.