"IT IS IN TO STAY."
“Hurrah, for Uncle Joseph!" shouted Edward; and Edward's brother and sister, Arthur and Annie, echoed the sentiment.
According to promise, Uncle Joseph had called to take his nephews and niece to see the pottery works, not far from the place in which they had all taken up summer, quarters, Uncle Joseph at the hotel, and his relatives at a comfortable cottage not far away.
It was a fine, bright day, and not uncomfortably warm, so the walk of a mile and a half to the pottery was enjoyed by the whole party. So was the visit itself and the walk home, the latter made lively by a discussion of the many interesting sights which had been witnessed.
The young folks had each brought away with them a souvenir of their visit in the shape of a very ordinary-looking drinking-cup, decorated in blue and brown colors. These tokens they esteemed not for their value in money, but because they had witnessed the manufacture of hundreds like them. They had seen between thirty and forty girls sitting before as many flat plates, which, by the aid of machinery, were kept spinning round at a very rapid rate. Again and again, as occasion required, a workman placed a small lump of clay upon each of these plates, when the operators, with deft fingers, would work them into shape, and fashion out a cup. The form secured, the operator would dip a camel's-hair brush into the blue or brown coloring matter, as desired, and, with a light touch on the whirling vessel, make the rings upon its surface. Each ring was but the work of a second or so. The coloring finished, an attendant workman removed the cups from the fast-spinning wheels, or plates; a further supply of clay was placed upon them, and the process was repeated.
The young visitors were exceedingly anxious to learn how the ware was hardened and glazed, and the proprietor of the place very cheerfully showed them the whole process.
These soft cups were carried to an oven, which had been raised" to a high temperature. Here they were baked with as much caution as a good cook pays to a Thanksgiving turkey or a batch of homemade bread, lest they should harden too speedily. From this oven the cups were removed to a second and hotter one, and from the second oven they were transferred to a third, which was still hotter. In the burning heat of this last oven, they acquired the bright gloss, or glaze, so familiar on the surface of brown stoneware and pottery generally.
"There, sir," said the proprietor to Arthur, as he showed him one of the cups that had not yet had time to cool off after its fiery ordeal, "easily as that color was applied, neither you nor I can by any means get it out. It is in to stay. You may break the vessel to pieces, but the color remains firm and fast."
The young folks examined many of the broken pieces of pottery, and found indeed that the color was permanently burned in. They were assured that neither acid nor alkali would effect a change. There was no agency, however powerful, that could do it.
Much interested, and not a little edified, Uncle Joseph and his small party left the factory and started for home. The journey seemed far too short, so pleasant was the conversation as each spoke of the object that had been to them the chief attraction.
They were almost home when Uncle Joseph said, "There is one thing in connection with our visit, which I think I shall never forget. I refer to the words of the proprietor, who made us so welcome. 'It is in to stay,' he said; and Annie, Edward, and Arthur, I think our pleasant morning's trip may be of lasting use to us, if we remember those words and the lesson they suggest. It is almost as easy, I think, to color our character with a bad habit as it was for the operators to color those cups. While you are young, you will find that your impressions for good or bad are more easily made than is the case with those who are older. You are now the soft clay.
Your after life in the world, with its varied scenes, will prove like the three furnaces, making permanent the coloring of youth. Many a young person who in youth has given way to some foolish and, indeed, sinful habit, with the idea that it could be as quickly thrown aside, has in after years discovered that it was 'in to stay.'"
New York Observer.