was put into a wagon and sent out to Rushford,
where his mother was living. The wanderings of the little captive were
over.

THE GREATEST OF TELESCOPE MAKERS.

Three great inventors in this country were portrait painters. Fulton,
the builder of steamboats, was one of them; Morse, who planned our
first electric telegraph, was another; and Alvan Clark, who found out a
way of making the largest and finest telescopes in the world, was
another.

Alvan Clark was the son of a farmer. When he was eighteen years old, he
set to work to learn engraving and drawing. He had no teacher. After a
while he began to draw portraits. Once he sent to Boston to get some
brushes to paint with. When the brushes came, there was a piece of
newspaper wrapped round them. In this bit of newspaper was an
advertisement that engravers were wanted. He went to Boston, and found
regular work as an engraver.

When he was not busy engraving, he was studying painting. After some
years he became a painter of portraits and miniatures. He lived at
Cambridgeport, near Boston.

While Mr. Clark was living at Cambridgeport, his son was at a boarding
school. The young boy had become interested in telescopes. He learned
that there were two kinds of these instruments. One brought the stars
near by showing them in a curved mirror. The other magnified by means
of glasses that the light shone through. He had read that it was very
hard to grind these glasses or lenses, as they are called, so that they
would be correct. The telescope that used the mirror was not so good,
but it was easier to make. So George Clark made up his mind that he
would make a reflecting telescope; that is, one with a mirror in it.

The mirror in such a telescope is made of polished metal. One day
somebody broke the dinner bell at the boarding school. George dark
picked up the pieces of brass and took them home.

These pieces of brass he put into a retort. A retort is a vessel that
will bear great heat, and that is used for melting metals and other
substances. Young Clark put some tin into the retort with the brass.
When the two metals were melted together, he poured the liquid into a
mold. When it became cold, it was a round flat piece. Such a piece is
called a disc.

Alvan Clark, the father, was a very ingenious man. He was a fine
marksman. One reason that he could shoot so well was that his eye was
so true. Another was that he made his own rifles, and made them better
than ot