The little girls thought otherwise, but they wisely said nothing, and looked forward to the evening, with feelings of curiosity, rather than with anticipations of pleasure. Mr. Dermott was still at home, and, at his wife's earnest request, had consented to act once more in the capacity of teacher. Anna having passed him the Catechism, and promptly repeated the answer to the question, he asked, "Who made the world, Isabelle?" "God." "Yes, my dear, God made the world and all things that are therein." The gentleman arose from his seat, and paced the room two or three times without speaking. At length he stopped opposite the chair of his sister-in-law, and said, "That was a delightful winter we passed in Washington together." "Yes," she replied, in a low voice, as if she were speaking in meeting. "That was a sensible arrangement." "To what do you refer?" asked his wife. "Why, to your plan of being married on the same evening as your sister, instead of a month in advance, so that we could be together at Washington during the honeymoon." The sisters smiled; but Helen asked, rather abruptly, "Papa, have you forgotten the catechising?" Mr. Dermott smiled archly, but did not reply to the child. "I recalled our visit to the capital of our Union, as I have been thinking to-day of the Patent Office. What a remarkable institution that is!" "Yes, I was more interested in it than in any other place we visited. One might spend weeks there with profit." "Will you please, uncle, to tell us about it some time?" timidly urged Anna. "I will tell you now, my dear," he said, patting her head affectionately. "In the first place, we went to examine the models of machinery, telegraphs, lightning rods, and agricultural implements. There were miniature steam engines, cotton gins, spinning gins, weaving looms, and carding machines. Then there were ploughs, and harrows, and cultivators, and seed sowers, and hay cutters, and corn shellers, and churns, and household utensils, together with every conceivable variety of implement in agriculture, beside a great many things which seemed to be of no possible use. The room was thronged with visitors, and there was some difficulty in getting near enough to examine the various articles. Then we went on to the patented articles for catching fish, of which there was a great variety; then for trapping game, and from that to the ordnance department. Here were pistols of every size and capacity, guns, firelocks, field pieces, and batteries; models of weapons offensive and defensive. "As I stood gazing at one article after another, I thought, 'What a wonderful power there is in the human brain! How it has contrived and fashioned things, new and old, great and small, curious, ingenious, and useful, for every conceivable purpose of art or industry.'