"What!  think  I  had  n't  rather  go  fishing  than  peg  away  at  problems
in  geometry  ?  "  cried  Jack.  "  Well,  I  guess  !  '

"  Now,  Jack,  I  'm  not  going  to  think
as  poorly  of  you  as  that,"  protested
Uncle  Tom.  "  Of  course  I  '11  admit
that  a  shady  bank,  a  hook  and  line,  and
plenty  of  bites  are  more  interesting  than
a  proposition  in  Euclid  ;  but  as  between
the  two  for  a  real  mind  developer  and
intellectual  spur,  I  don't  think  so  prac-
tical and  wicle-awake  a  fellow  as  you

J

would  hesitate  in  choice.  Greatness
comes  because  of  persistence  quite  as
much  as  because  of  o-enius,  and  it  was

o

persistence  even  more  than  genius  that
made  our  dozen  or  more  famous  Ameri-
cans great  and  immortal."

"  But  about  Patrick  Henry,"  prompted  Bert,  who  always  liked  to  stick
to  the  subject.
"  Did  n't  he  have  genius?  "  asked  Jack.
"  I  should  not  call  it  genius,"  said  Uncle  Tom.  "With  him  it  was  more
the  inspiration  of  the  moment  or  the  spur  of  necessity  that  turned  his  tongue
to  fire.  He  was  what  we  might  call  an  instigator  to  liberty,  as  was  Otis  in
Boston,  and  the  boy  Hamilton  in  New  York."

"  How  soon  was  it  before  he  became  an  orator?  "  Marian  inquired.
"  Not  until  he  was  twenty-seven  years  old,"  was  Uncle  Tom's  reply.
"  His  youth,  as  I  have  told  you,  was  a  careless,  happy-go-lucky  existence;
he  never  succeeded  at  anything  and  stuck  to  nothing  long.  But  when  at


PATRICK.   HENRY.
