We make a guttural noise and write down a "G."

We let the air pass through our closed teeth and we write down "S."

We open our mouth wide and make a noise like a steam engine and the
sound is written down "H."

It took the human race hundreds of thousands of years to discover this
and the credit for it goes to the Egyptians.

Of course they did not use the letters which have been used to print
this book.

They had a system of their own.

It was much prettier than ours but not quite so simple.

It consisted of little figures and images of things around the house and
around the farm, of knives and plows and birds and pots and pans. These
little figures their scribes scratched and painted upon the wall of the
temples, upon the coffins of their dead kings and upon the dried leaves
of the papyrus plant which has given its name to our "paper."

But when the Romans entered this vast library they showed neither
enthusiasm nor interest.

They possessed a system of writing of their own which they thought
vastly superior.

[Illustration: THE KEY OF STONE]