ble in Hare-Lip's hand. It stands for ten grains of sand, or
ten tens of fingers, or one hundred fingers. I put in ten pebbles. They
stand for a thousand fingers. I take a mussel-shell, and it stands for
ten pebbles, or one hundred grains of sand, or one thousand fingers...."
And so on, laboriously, and with much reiteration, he strove to build
up in their minds a crude conception of numbers. As the quantities
increased, he had the boys holding different magnitudes in each of
their hands. For still higher sums, he laid the symbols on the log of
driftwood; and for symbols he was hard put, being compelled to use the
teeth from the skulls for millions, and the crab-shells for billions.
It was here that he stopped, for the boys were showing signs of becoming
tired.

"There were four million people in San Francisco--four teeth."

The boys' eyes ranged along from the teeth and from hand to hand, down
through the pebbles and sand-grains to Edwin's fingers. And back again
they ranged along the ascending series in the effort to grasp such
inconceivable numbers.

"That was a lot of folks, Granser," Edwin at last hazarded.

"Like sand on the beach here, like sand on the beach, each grain of sand
a man, or woman, or child. Yes, my boy, all those people lived right
here in San Francisco. And at one time or another all those people
came out on this very beach--more people than there are grains of sand.
More--more--more. And San Francisco was a noble city. And across the
bay--where we camped last year, even more people lived, clear from Point
Richmond, on the level ground and on the hills, all the way around to
San Leandro--one great city of seven million people.--Seven teeth...
there, that's it, seven millions."

Again the boys' eyes ranged up and down from Edwin's fingers to the
teeth on the log.

"The world was full of people. The census of 2010 gave eight billions
for the whole world--eight crab-shells, yes, eight billions. It was not
like to-day. Mankind knew a great deal more about getting food. And the
more food there was, the more people there were. In the year 1800, there
were one hundred and seventy millions in Europe alone. One hundred years
later--a grain of sand, Hoo-Hoo--one hundred years later, at 1900, there
were five hundred millions in Europe--five grains of sand, Hoo-Hoo, and
this one tooth. This shows how easy was the getting of food, and how men
increased. And in the year 2000 there were fifteen hundred mill