250 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
my problem—I would work for it. My father was 
going to have some fences painted. I offered to 
do the work—for a consideration. Then I made 
up little cases of insects and sold them. I turned 
fretwork to account, made a little plunder from 
postage-stamps, and onion-nets, which an old 
village worthy had taught me to make. In quite 
a short time I had realized a little over £2. One 
good day my father, who had evidently watched 
my proceedings with interest, and knew what I was 
after, asked me how I was getting on. I told him, 
and he was so pleased with my determination that 
he made up the required amount. As one might 
say, I secured my instrument in the “ twinkling of 
an eye.” 
I strongly advise the reader who is determined 
to possess a ‘microscope not to waste good money 
on any sort of instrument. A lot of the cheap 
microscopes that are displayed in shop windows 
are made to sell, not to do good work. An effective 
instrument cannot be made for the price at which 
those cheap ones are sold. It may be thought that 
a cheap instrument will do all that is required of it ; 
it can certainly give some magnification, but as 
likely as not it will present a distorted image to the 
eye, and make the object look as if it were fringed 
with all the colours of the rainbow. If one of these 
microscopes be purchased, it will soon be discarded, 
and when the time comes for the purchase of a 
satisfactory instrument, you will wish you had not 
spent good money on one that is practically useless. 
Now, a microscope capable of doing all the work 
that an ordinary student requires of it need not 
