shops and houses in each, and the places where his friends had lived,
and no doubt lived still, for college towns do not change as fast as
others. He was amazed at the memory the boy had shown for details; if
the lad had not yet developed any special talent, he had at least proved
that he possessed one of those natural gifts which are sometimes alone
enough to make success. The born builder's eye is like an ear for music,
a facility for languages, or the power of drawing from nature; all the
application in the world will not do in years what any one of these does
instantly, spontaneously, instinctively, without the smallest effort.
You cannot make talent out of a combination of taste and industry. You
cannot train a cart-horse to trot a mile in a little over a minute.

Newton returned, bringing his materials, to describe which would be
profitless, if it were possible. He had everything littered together in
two battered deal candle-boxes, including the broken soup-plate
containing the flour paste, a loathely, mouldering little mess that
diffused a nauseous odour, distinctly perceptible through that of the
unpronounceable chemical on which the Air-Motor was to depend for its
existence.

The light outside was failing in the murky November air, and Overholt
lit the big reflecting lamp that hung over the work-table. There was
another above the lathe, for no gas or electricity was to be had so far
from the town, and one of old Barbara's standing causes of complaint
against Overholt was his reckless use of kerosene--she thought it would
be better if he had more fat turkeys and rump-steaks and less light.

So the man and the boy "went to work to play" at building the City of
Hope, for at least an hour before supper and half an hour after it,
almost every day; and with the boy's marvellous memory and the father's