He knew that cotton grew
on a shrub, and that caoutchouc exuded from a tree, and admitted the
possibility of their natural combination, but thought his deceivers had
reference to braces with metal attachments.
"That reminds me," said the lawyer, "of a man from Lanark that came into
our office asking where he'd find a mining geologist. He had some
grey-looking cork and leather wrapped up in a newspaper, and said he had
dug them out of the ground where there was lots more of both of them. I
told him he had likely come on the remains of an old picnic, and that
the leather was the skin of the ham they had taken out to make
sandwiches of; but the impudent creature laughed in my face, as if any
child doesn't know that leather is the skin of beasts, and cork, of a
tree!"
"Nevertheless, Corry, he was no doubt right, and you were wrong in your
scepticism. What are called mountain cork and mountain leather are forms
of asbestos. They are of no use, unless it be for the lining of safes.
The fibrous asbestos can be made into fire-proof clothes."
"So, old Leather Corks had the laugh on me there! Dad, I'll apologize
for sending him to the marines next time he comes in.
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