Oscar replied that it was salt.

It is but justice to add, how ever, that nothing was said in the lesson of the day, on this point, although the question had occurred in a previous lesson.

Noticing that several of the boys laughed at Oscar's blunder, the teacher remarked: "That was a very foolish answer, Oscar, but you are not the first nor the wisest person that has made the same mistake.

When the British went to war with us, in 1812, it is said that all their war vessels intended to navigate the lakes, were furnished with tanks and casks for carrying a full supply of freshwater; and I have been told that an apparatus is still in existence in one of the Canadian navy yards, which the English government sent over, some years ago, for distilling fresh water from Lake Erie.

But an American school-boy of your age ought to know better than this, if an English lord of the admiralty does not.