As the girls ran up the cellar steps together, Margaret said--"Just
step in and see grandfather, I should like him to see you."

And Mary consented.



V. THE MILL ON FIRE-JEM WILSON TO THE RESCUE.

"Learned he was; nor bird nor insect flew,
But he its leafy home and history knew:
Nor wild-flower decked the rock, nor moss the well,
But he its name and qualities could tell."
--ELLIOTT.

There is a class of men in Manchester, unknown even to many of the
inhabitants, and whose existence will probably be doubted by many,
who yet may claim kindred with all the noble names that science
recognises. I said in "Manchester," but they are scattered all over
the manufacturing districts of Lancashire. In the neighbourhood of
Oldham there are weavers, common hand-loom weavers, who throw the
shuttle with unceasing sound, though Newton's "Principia" lies open
on the loom, to be snatched at in work hours, but revelled over in
meal times, or at night. Mathematical problems are received with
interest, and studied with absorbing attention by many a broad-
spoken, common-looking factory-hand. It is perhaps less astonishing
that the more popularly interesting branches of natural history have
their warm and devoted followers among this class. There are
botanists among them, equally familiar with either the Linnaean or