CHAPTER IX
THE STORY OF THE FIRST TELEPHONE
"I am going down to Freeman's Falls this afternoon to get some rubber tape," Ted remarked to Laurie, as the two boys and the tutor were eating a picnic lunch in Ted's cabin one Saturday.
"Oh, make somebody else do your errand and stay here," Laurie begged. "Anybody can buy that stuff. Some of the men must be going to the Falls. Ask Wharton to make them do your shopping."
"Perhaps Ted had other things to attend to," ventured Mr. Hazen.
"No, I hadn't," was the prompt reply.
"In that case I am sure any of the men would be glad to get whatever you please," the tutor declared.
"Save your energy, old man," put in Laurie. "Electrical supplies are easy enough to buy when you know what you want."
"They are now," Mr. Hazen remarked, with a quiet smile, "but they have not always been. In fact, it was not so very long ago that it was almost impossible to purchase either books on electricity or electrical stuff of any sort. People's knowledge of such matters was so scanty that little was written about them; and as for shops of this type—why, they were practically unknown."