Publisher's Synopsis
As a very small boy, I distinctly remember that stories of the discovery of America and Australia, of the exploration of Central Africa and of the invention of the locomotive, the steamboat, and the telegraph made a deep impression on my childish mind; and I shall never forget going one day to my mother and saying: - "Oh, dear, I wish I had been born before everything was discovered and invented. Now, there is nothing left for me to do."
