to say worth listening to; talking to a crowd was no great task for him
and he had a genius for verbal expression.

"I hope my partner in mechanical effort and now in misery will let me
speak for him, too, for he couldn't get up here and say a word if you'd
promise him the moon for a watch charm. Our host, Mr. Hooper, would have
given us enough credit if he had just stated that we were two
persevering ginks, bent on making the best of a good chance and using,
perhaps with some judgment, the directions of our superior, Professor
Gray, along with some of our own ideas that fitted, in. But to compare
us and our small job here, which was pretty well all mapped out for us,
to the wonderful endeavors of Thomas Alva Edison is more than even our
combined conceit can stand for. If we deserved such praise, even in the
smallest way, you'd see us with our chests swelled out so far that we'd
look like a couple of garden toads.

"Edison! Mr. Hooper, did you, even in your intended kindness in
flattering Gus and myself, really stop to think what it could mean to
compare us with that wonderful man? I know you could not mean to
belittle him, but you certainly gave us an honor far beyond what any
other man in the world, regarding electrical and mechanical things,
could deserve. If we could hope to do a hundredth part of the great
things Edison has done, it would, as Professor Gray says, indeed make
life worth living.

"But we thank you, Mr. Hooper, for your kind words and for inviting all
these good friends and our classmates, and we thank you and good Mrs.
Hooper for this bully spread and everything!"

Bill started to sit down amidst a hearty hand-clapping, but Cora Siebold