t you have time to tell me some of it now?"

"I might have time to tell you about one of the men, but not both; and
even were I to tell you about one of them, in order to make you
understand how truly great he was I should have to tell you much that
happened before he began his pottery-making," answered Mr. Croyden
slowly.

"I shouldn't mind that at all," laughed Theo. "The longer your
stories are the better I like them."

Mr. Croyden smiled.

"Suppose, then, we begin," he said, "and I will try before luncheon to
introduce you to our second great potter. But before I do this we must
go back a little that you may recall exactly where we left off. While
Holland was turning out its Delft ware; Italy its glazed terra-cotta;
and France its Henri Deux and other enameled earthenwares, in the Low
Countries and the German States a new variety of pottery with a coarse
surface not unlike the porous skin of an orange was being made. This
was known as Gres de Flandres, _gres_ meaning earthenware. The unique
feature it possessed was not so much its orange-skin surface as the
surprising method by which it was glazed. The ware itself was made on
a potter's wheel often from the commonplace kinds of clay, such as are
employed in making stone china; sometimes this was brown, sometimes
gray, sometimes cream-colored. There was nothing original about the
material employed. But afterward--then came the amazing thing! When
the clay articles were put into the kiln to be fired a quantity of
common salt was thrown in with them and this salt created a vapor
which when it settled upon the ware fused with it, giving to the clay
a coarse, porous-appearing surface."

"How do you suppose anybody ever thought of using salt?" inquired
Theo.

"I do not know. Probably the discovery, like so many others, was a
mere happen-so. At any rate it was a fortunate happening, for
immediately this method of glazing earthenware was carried to England,
where Doulton of Lambeth began manufacturing some very beautiful
gres. For gres can be of exquisite beauty as well as of most ordinary
type. Do not forget that. The term serves to cover those opaque
earthenwares which are fired until vitrification or an external
glassing results. At first all styles of gres were called Gres de
Flandres, but later the single term gres was given them. You will
hardly be surprised when I tell you that those past masters in the art
of every kind of pottery-making, the Chinese and Jap