The Story of Glass

By

SARA WARE BASSETT

Author of

"The Story of Lumber"
"The Story of Wool"
"The Story of Leather"
"The Story of Sugar"
etc.

ILLUSTRATED BY
C. P. GRAY

THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA
1917

COPYRIGHT 1916
BY
THE PENN PUBLISHING COMPANY

To G. C.

a patient listener and a helpful critic I inscribe
this book as a reminder of many happy hours
which we spent together in the Old World

S. W. B.

Contents

1. A Friendly Feud9
2. Jean Has a Surprise and Gives One27
3. Giusippe Tells a Story50
4. Uncle Bob Enlarges His Party66
5. Giusippe Encounters an Old Friend83
6. Uncle Bob as Story Teller99
7. America Once More121
8. Jean Threatens to Steal Giusippe's Trade140
9. A Reunion163
10. Two Uncles and a New Home182
11. Jean's Telegram and What It Said208
12. Jean and Giusippe Each Find a Niche in Life220

Illustrations

1. The Throng of Moving WorkmenFrontispiece
2. "Every One Knows Me at the Glass Works"47
3. "I Knew Her in Venice"95
4. "It is Shaped to the Form Required"160
5. "The Melt is Poured Out on an Iron Table"202
6. "I Want These Orders Filled"223

THE STORY OF GLASS

CHAPTER I

A FRIENDLY FEUD

EAN CABOT "lived around." She did not live around because nobody wanted her, however; on the contrary, she lived around because so many people wanted her. Both her father and mother had died when Jean was a baby and so until she was twelve years old she had been brought up by a cousin of her mother's. Then the cousin had married a missionary and had gone to teach the children in China, and China, as you will agree, was no place for an American girl to go to school. Therefore Jean was sent to Boston and put in charge of her uncle, Mr. Robert Cabot. Uncle Bob was delighted with the arrangement, for they were great friends, Jean and this boy-uncle of hers.

But no sooner did she arrive in Boston and settle down to live on Beacon Hill than up rose Uncle Tom Curtis, Jean's other uncle, who lived in Pittsburgh. He made a dreadful fuss because Jean had gone to Uncle Bob's to live. He wanted her out in Pittsburgh, and he wrote that Fräulein Decker, who was his housekeeper, and had been governess to Jean's own mother, wanted her too.

That started Hannah, Uncle Bob's housekeeper.

"The very idea," she said, "of that German woman thinking they want Jean in Pittsburgh as much as we want her here in Boston. Didn't I bring up Jean's father, I'd like to know; and her Uncle Bob as well? I guess I can be trusted to bring up another Cabot. It's ridiculous—that's what it is—perfectly ree-diculous!" That was Hannah's favorite expression—"Ree-diculous!" "I'd like my job," went on Hannah, "sending that precious child to Pittsburgh where her white dresses would get all grimed up with coal soot."

But Hannah's scorn of Pittsburgh did not settle the matter.

Instead Mr. Carleton, Uncle Tom Curtis's lawyer, came to Boston as fast as he could get there and one afternoon presented himself at Uncle Bob's house on Beacon Hill. Uncle Bob was in the library when he arrived and the two men sat down before the fire, for it was a chilly day in early spring. After they had said a few pleasant things about the weather, and Uncle Bob had inquired for Uncle Tom, they really got started on what they wanted to say and my—how they did talk! It was all good-natured talk, for Uncle Bob liked Uncle Tom Curtis very much; nevertheless Uncle Bob and Uncle Tom's lawyer did talk