LI E) RARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 
 
 z- \ 
 
 f^ 
 
 ■^ 
 
/ 
 
 ^ 
 
 t^ 
 
\ 
 
HARRY AND LUCY 
 
 CONCLUDED. 
 
LONDON; 
 
 PRINTED BY (JHAKLES \VoOI>, 
 Poppin's Court, Fleet Street. 
 
HARRY AND LUCY 
 
 CONCLUDED; 
 
 BEING 
 
 THE LAST PART 
 
 OF 
 
 EARLY LESSONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 MARIA EDGE WORTH. 
 
 IN FOUR VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Tbe business of Education, in respect of knowledge, is not, as I think, to 
 perfect a learner in all or any one of the sciences ; but to give his mind 
 that disposition, and those habits, that may enable him to attain an? 
 part of knowledge he shall stand in need of in the future coarse of his 
 '^f^- LOCKE. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR R. HUNTER, 
 
 72, ST. Paul's churchyard ; axd 
 
 BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, 
 
 47, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1825. 
 
v?^« 
 
 \^ 
 
 ■^■B^^^^^fa 
 
?Z3 
 
 /J'zs 
 
 TO 
 
 THE CHILDREN OF 
 HER FATHER'S FRIEND, 
 
 CAPTAIN BEAUFORT, 
 
 THIS BOOK IS 
 DEDICATED 
 
 BY 
 
 MARIA EDGEWORTH. 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arcinive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/harrylucyconclud01edge 
 
 r -' 
 
P R E F x\ C E ; 
 
 ADDRESSED TO PARENTS. 
 
 These volumes are intended for young 
 people, from the age of ten to fourteen. 
 They complete the series of " Early Les- 
 sons ;" an humble work, from which no 
 literary fame can be acquired, but which I 
 have been most desirous to complete, from 
 the belief that it will be more useful than 
 any other in my power. I have had ano- 
 ther motive for finishing it; one, which, 
 though it may be no concern of the public, 
 1 may be permitted to name. Harry and 
 Lucy was begun by my father, above fifty 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 years ago, for the use of his own family, 
 and published at a time when no one of 
 any literary character, excepting Dr. Watts 
 and Mrs. Barbauld, had ever condescended 
 to write for children. That little book 
 was, I believe, the very first attempt to 
 give any correct elementary knowledge or 
 taste for science in a narrative suited to 
 the comprehension of children, and cal- 
 culated to amuse and interest, as well as 
 to instruct. Finding, from experience, that 
 it answered the intended purpose, my father 
 continued the book at intervals ; and in 
 the last part, published in 1813, I had the 
 pleasure of assisting him. He then com- 
 municated many ideas for the completion 
 of his plan, which I thought too valuable 
 to be abandoned. I considered, that a full 
 knowledge of his views, and long habits 
 of acquaintance with his mode of teach- 
 ing, might enable me to do justice to his 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 plan, though I was aware of the difficulty 
 of combining ingenious with practicable 
 illustrations, and still more sensible of the 
 accuracy requisite for elementary instruc- 
 tion. The want of his mind working along 
 with my own, I knew must be in this at- 
 tempt peculiarly felt ; but I have been 
 encouraged to persevere by the assistance 
 afforded me by his and my own scientific 
 friends. To name these kind and able 
 friends would gratify my vanity, and might 
 ensure the confidence of parents ; but it 
 would, perhaps, have more the appearance 
 of ostentation than of candour, and might- 
 leave others responsible for errors, which 
 have escaped the most careful revisal. 
 
 I have endeavoured to pursue, in this 
 Conclusion of Early Lessons, my father's 
 object in their commencement — to exercise 
 the powers of attention, observation, rea- 
 soning, and invention, rather than to teach 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 any one science, or to make any advance 
 beyond first principles. The essential point 
 is to excite a thirst for knowledge, without 
 which it is in vain to pour the full tide 
 even to the lips. As Dr. Johnson said to 
 Boswell, when he was describing the pains 
 his preceptors had taken to give him learn- 
 ing: — 
 
 " Sir, anybody can bring a horse to the 
 water, but who can make him drink?" 
 
 Consistently with the sort of instruction 
 to be conveyed, it was impossible to give 
 as much of the amusement arising from 
 incident and story, in this book, as in some 
 others. But the varying occurrences of 
 domestic life, the frequent changes of scene, 
 and the different characters of the children, 
 with all their hopes and fears in the pur- 
 suit of their own little schemes and expe- 
 riments, will, I hope, produce sufficient 
 action to create interest, and to keep awake 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 attention. No pernicious stimulus has been 
 criven, no deception or cajolery employed 
 to effect our purpose. All attempts to cheat 
 children, by the false promise that they 
 can obtain knowledg-e without labour, are 
 vain and hurtful. The gods sell every 
 thing to labour, and mortals, young or 
 old, must pay that price. The wages of 
 industry should, how^ever, be rendered as 
 certain as possible ; for the pupils will exert 
 themselves in proportion to their hopes, 
 that their efforts will be recompensed by the 
 pleasure of success. I have taken all the 
 precautions in my power to secure to each 
 effort of attention its just reward. 
 
 Much that would be tiresome and in- 
 sufferable to young people, if offered by 
 preceptors in a didactic tone, w^ill be 
 eagerly accepted when suggested in con- 
 versation, especially in conversations be- 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 tween themselves : in these there is always 
 a certain proportion of nonsense ; an alloy, 
 which is necessary to make sense work 
 well. Children can go on talking to one 
 another much longer than they can bear to 
 hear the address, however wise or eloquent, 
 of any grown person. Young people, of 
 good disposition, learn with peculiar ease 
 from each other, because the young teacher 
 has not forg^otten his own difficulties : 
 knowing exactly where they lay, he sees 
 how to remove them, or to assist another 
 over the obstacles. The great preceptor, 
 standing on the top of the ladder of learn- 
 ing, can hardly stretch his hand down to 
 the poor urchin at the bottom, looking up 
 to him in despair ; but an intermediate 
 companion, who is only a few steps above, 
 can assist him with a helping hand, can 
 show him where to put his foot safely ; 
 
 rilMi 
 
PREFACE. xiii 
 
 and now urging, now encouraging, can 
 draw him up to any height within his own 
 attainment. 
 
 The system of mutual instruction can 
 be still more advantageously pursued in 
 teaching the rudiments of science than 
 those of literature, and may be extended 
 even to higher branches of intellectual 
 education. Upon this principle, in the 
 following volumes, the young brother is 
 employed to teach his sister what he has 
 learned, either from his father, or from 
 books. 
 
 Harry's abilities and knowledge will 
 perhaps appear a little above his age ; but 
 this the reader must excuse, and attribute, 
 as he pleases, to education, or to accident, 
 or to natural genius. Harry will not be 
 disliked because he is not pedantic ; and 
 he has some redeeming faults and foibles, 
 which save him from the odium attached 
 
 m 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 to a perfect cliaracter, and from the danger 
 of being thought too good to be natural. 
 
 Lucy, on the other hand, may at times 
 seem too childish and volatile ; her re- 
 spect for accuracy not being at first much 
 gi'eater than that of the sailor, who said, 
 " We'll not quarrel for a handful of de- 
 grees." But these faults produce the non- 
 sense and the action necessary to relieve ' 
 the reader's attention. As to the danger 
 and the penalties of her becoming an 
 affected scientific lady, it is left to her 
 mother's and her own good sense and good 
 taste to guard against that evil. All that 
 can be said or thought upon the subject by 
 the other sex, is comprised in the Edin- 
 burgh wit's declaration — 
 
 ** I do not care how blue a lady's stock- 
 ings may be, if her petticoats are but long 
 enough." 
 
 My father long ago foresaw, what every- 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 body now feels, that the taste for scientific, 
 as well as literary knowledge, which has 
 risen rapidly, and has spread widely, would 
 render it necessary to make some provision 
 for the early instruction of youth in science, 
 in addition to the o^reat and successful 
 attention paid to classical literature. In 
 public establishments, alterations, even 
 when felt to be requisite, must for many 
 reasons be tardy ; much, in the mean time, 
 may be prepared by private instruction. 
 
 It has been feared by some, that the 
 general diffusion of knowledge will tend 
 to damp the energy of genius; and that 
 original invention will decline, in conse- 
 quence of increased cultivation. This 
 might, perhaps, be the consequence of in- 
 judicious cultivation. If the acquisition 
 of a great quantity of learning of all kinds, 
 or of any kind, were made the sole and 
 ultimate object, the mind would be op- 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 pressed, and invention extinguished under 
 the mass : but of this there is no danger if 
 the faculties be proportionably exercised, 
 and if the pupil be enabled to arrange, 
 and above all to employ his knowledge. 
 In science, [the hope of future discoveries, 
 and the ambition to invent, are great, na- 
 tural, and never-failing excitements to 
 young and old. 
 
 That very ingenious and very mysterious 
 philosopher. Dr. Hooke, speaks somewhere 
 in his works of an algebraic formula, by 
 which he could determine what things are 
 possible or impossible to perform or to 
 invent. Without perfectly crediting or 
 perfectly understanding this veiled prophet, 
 we may hope and believe, that the inventive 
 power may be assisted and improved by 
 exercise, by reasoning, and by judicious 
 experiments. Many admirable observa- 
 tions on the nature and conduct of the 
 
PREFACE. XVU 
 
 understanding, on the causes which have 
 prevented our advancement in knowledge, 
 and on the habits of false reasoning, pre- 
 possessions, and prejudices, which enslave 
 and disable our faculties, are to be found 
 in the works of Bacon and of Hooke, of 
 Locke, Stewart, and Playfair. These ob- 
 servations should not be suffered to lie 
 dormant in books, the admiration only of 
 the learned ; nor should we be content with 
 merely citing them occasionally, to adorn 
 our writings, or to point our conversation. 
 Metaphysics, after being too much in 
 fashion, have been thrown aside too dis- 
 dainfully, and their use and abuse have 
 been confounded. Surely it would be 
 doing good service to bring into popular 
 form all that metaphysicians have dis- 
 covered, which can be applied to practice 
 in education. This was early and long my 
 father's object. The art of teaching to inr 
 VOL. I. b 
 
XVlll PREFACE. 
 
 vent — I dare not say — but of awakening 
 and assisting the inventive power by daily 
 exercise and excitement, and by the ap- 
 plication of philosophic principles to trivial 
 occurrences, he believed might be pursued 
 vs^ith infinite advantage to the rising gene- 
 ration. 
 
 I have now stated all the objects of this 
 book : how far they have been accom- 
 plished must be left to time, and parents, 
 and, above all, to children to decide. 
 
 MARIA EDGEWORTH. 
 
 MaySlst, 1825. 
 
" Mamma, do you recollect, two years 
 ago, when my father was explaining to 
 us the barometer and thermometer, and 
 when he showed us several little experi- 
 ments?" said Lucy, and she sighed. 
 
 " Yes, my dear, I remember that time 
 very well," said her mother; " but why 
 do you sigh?" 
 
 '^ Because I was very happy then^'' said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " And are not you happy now, my 
 dear ? " 
 
 " Yes, mamma, but not so very happy 
 as I was then, because now I do not go 
 on with Harry as I used to do." 
 
 VOL. I, B 
 
"How so? I hope that you have not 
 had any quarrel with your brother?" 
 
 " Quarrel I oh no, mamma, it would 
 be impossible to quarrel with Harry, he 
 is so good-natured; and he is as fond of 
 me as ever, I believe. But yet, I do not 
 know how it is, we do not suit each other 
 quite so well as we did. We are not so 
 much together ; I do not know all he is 
 doing, nor go on with all he is thinking 
 of, as I used to do." 
 
 " My dear Lucy, you and your brother 
 have been learning different things for 
 some time past; and as you grow older, 
 this must be; your different employments 
 must separate you during a great part of 
 the day ; and so much the better, you will 
 be the more glad to be together in your 
 hours of amusement. Do not you find 
 this?" 
 
 "Yes, I do, mamma," said Lucy, " but — " 
 and after this buty she sighed again. " But 
 now we are not amused always in the 
 same way. Harry has grown so exces- 
 sively fond of mechanics, and of all those 
 
scientific things, which he is always 
 learning from my uncle and papa." 
 
 **I thought, Lucy, that you were fond of 
 those thino-s too ? " said her mother. 
 
 " So I am, mamma ; only I am not 
 nearly so fond of them as I was formerly : 
 I do not exactly know why ; but, in the 
 first place, I suppose, because I do not 
 understand them now nearly so well as 
 Harry does : he has got very far before 
 
 me." 
 
 " True," answered her mother, " you 
 have been learningf other thino^s, which it 
 is more necessary for a girl to know." 
 
 " Yes, mamma, I remember your say- 
 ing just after that happy barometer time, 
 that I thought of nothing but experiments ; 
 papa said, that must not be. Then I was 
 not allowed to go into his room w4th 
 Harry in the mornings. However, I learned 
 more of arithmetic, and drawinof, and danc- 
 ing, and music, and work." 
 
 " And you grew fond of these ; so much 
 the better," said her mother. '' This does 
 not make you less happy, does it?" 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 "No, no, mamma; but then came the 
 time when Harry and I ^^ere quite sepa- 
 rated. That long — long — lt>ng time, 
 when you were ill, mamma, and when I 
 was at my aunt Pierrepoint's : while I was 
 with her, I read nothing but stories and 
 poetry, and I heard my aunt and people 
 who were there reading plays. She used 
 to praise me for understanding wit, and for 
 repeating poetry. Then I grew very fond 
 of them. But Harry is so grave always 
 about wit, he never understands it at 
 first; and at last he says, ^ Is that all?' — 
 As to similes, they always interrupt 
 him." 
 
 " Thei/ interrupt him 1" said her mother, 
 '' perhaps, Lucy, ]/ou interrupt him." 
 
 " Sometimes, perhaps, I do, mamma ; 
 but he always finds out that similies are 
 not exact. This is very provoking. I 
 wonder why he is so much fonder of ex- 
 actness than I am." 
 
 " Probably because in science, which 
 he has been learning, he finds at every 
 step the use, the necessity of exactness. 
 
He could not go on without it in mea- 
 
 surinof or in reasoning-." 
 
 " Mamma, I understand the use of ex- 
 actness in some things. In drawing in 
 perspective, and in proportion, by a scale, 
 as you taught me. Harry came to me the 
 other day, and asked me to draw a cart 
 for him ; and I was glad to find that I 
 could help him in something." 
 
 ^' And I dare say he will be glad to 
 help you in his turn. You each know 
 different things, which you can learn from 
 one another, and in which you can be of 
 mutual assistance. This is just as it should 
 be between friends." 
 
 " Thank you, mamma, you make me 
 feel happy again. I will ask Harry to 
 bring me up to him in all he has been 
 learning, as fast as possible, that we may 
 go on together as we used to do, if you 
 have no objection, mamma." 
 
 " Do so, my dear Lucy ; but I warn 
 you, that you should not expect to go 
 fast; you must be content to go slowly, 
 and you must submit to be inferior to 
 
6 
 
 your brother for some time. This may 
 mortify you, my dear, but it cannot be 
 avoided, you must bear it." 
 
 *'Very well, mamma, I can bear it. But 
 mother," said Lucy, hesitating a little; 
 " there is one other thing I want to say, 
 before I can be quite happy." 
 
 *' Say it then, my dear: what are you 
 afraid of? — Not of me, I hope?" 
 
 "' Oh ! no, mamma, not afraid of you ; 
 but I am not sure that the person, who 
 said what I want to tell 3^ou, would like 
 that you should know that he said it." 
 
 " You can tell me what was said, then, 
 without telling me from whom you heard 
 it. Cannot you, Lucy ?" 
 
 *'Ican, and I will," said Lucy. "Then 
 you must know, mamma, that one day, 
 when I was at my aunt Pierrepoint's, she 
 was telling somebody that papa used to 
 teach me scientific things, along with 
 Harry; but that, since I had come to her, 
 I had not learned any thing of that sort. 
 And — now it comes, mamma, the gen- 
 tleman, who is not to be named, laughed." 
 
 — -.V 
 
" Well, there was no great harm in 
 
 that." 
 
 " No, mamma; only that he laughed in 
 a particular sort of way, scornfully. And 
 he said, that it was well for me I had left 
 off such learning. That I should be a 
 much more agreeable woman without it; 
 that ladies had nothing to do with science, 
 or ought to have nothing to do with it. 
 He said, that scientific ladies are always 
 displaying what they know, or what they 
 do not know. Those were his very words. 
 He said, that scientific ladies were his ab- 
 horrence. And he looked as if he abhorred 
 them terribly. I was very sorry at the 
 time, that he knew papa had taught me 
 any thing along with Harry. I was ashamed 
 and frio^htened, and I thoug-ht it was all 
 wrong. But now that I am come home 
 I think, that it was all right ; for I see 
 how much papa likes that you should 
 know the scientific things that he is busy 
 about, and how happy it makes you ; and 
 I want to go on again with Harry : only 
 
8 
 
 I wish, mamma, that all people were of 
 the same opinions about this'' 
 
 Her mother smiled, and said, " That 
 can never be, my dear Lucy : you will find 
 many people have different opinions upon 
 this subject. But all will agree with your 
 nameless gentleman, that when women 
 pretend to understand what they do not, 
 whether about science or any thing else, 
 they are absurd and ridiculous. And if they 
 talk even of what they understand, merely 
 to display their knowledge, they must be 
 troublesome and disagreeable. Therefore 
 they should take care not to do so. They 
 should be particularly cautious of talking 
 on scientific subjects, because they seldom 
 obtain accurate knowledge ; they are, 
 therefore, likely to make mistakes, and to 
 be either troublesome in asking questions, 
 or ridiculous in showing ignorance and 
 conceit." 
 
 " That is," said Lucy, " if they set up 
 for being scientific ladies." 
 
 " Yes, if they do that, they must take 
 
9 
 
 the consequences, they will be disliked,'' 
 said her mother. 
 
 " But then, mamma, I am so much 
 afraid of being abhorred. Even if they 
 are not conceited, will they be abhorred, 
 mamma ? " 
 
 " Not by persons of sense, my dear," 
 said her mother. " As far as I can judge, 
 I think that sensible men would be ready 
 to assist any unaffected, unassuming wo- 
 man, who really wished to inform herself, 
 and would like her the better for being 
 interested in their conversation, their writ- 
 ings, and their pursuits." 
 
 " I hope then, mamma, that I shall be 
 an unaffected, unassuming woman." 
 
 "I hope so, my dear child," said her 
 mother. " If your father did not hope so 
 too, he would never teach you any more 
 on these subjects." 
 
 " I should be very sorry for that," said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " Yes, I think you would, my dear; 
 for, even with your little experience, you 
 
 B 5 
 
10 
 
 feel that there is a real pleasure in go- 
 ing on, as you say, with your brother." 
 *' Xhat I do, indeed, mamma." 
 '*As you grow older," continued her 
 mother, *' you will perceive, that, by ac- 
 quiring knowledge, women not only in- 
 crease their power of being agreeable 
 companions to their fathers, brothers, 
 husbands, or friends, if they are so 
 happy as to be connected with sensible 
 men, but they increase their own pleasure 
 in reading and hearing of scientific ex- 
 periments and discoveries; they acquire a 
 greater variety of means of employing 
 themselves independently, and at home. 
 But, above all, the acquisition of know- 
 ledge not only enlarges but elevates the 
 mind, by filling it with admiration and 
 gratitude towards that bountiful Provi- 
 dence who has established such wise laws 
 for the welfare and preservation of the 
 world." 
 
 " Yes, mother," said Lucy ; and, after a 
 pause, in which she re-considered all her 
 
11 
 
 mother had been saying, she returned to 
 what still a little alarmed her imag^ination. 
 " But yet, mamma, I feel afraid of being 
 abhorred ; and if the acquiring knowledge 
 should make me vain — there is the 
 danger." 
 
 " There is the danger to be sure," 
 said her mother. " But, as far as I have 
 observed, ignorant women are as vain, 
 and often more so, than those who are 
 well informed ; and now, when almost 
 all are so educated that they have a 
 taste for literature, and some acquaintance 
 with scientific subjects, there is less danger 
 that any should be vain, of what is no pe- 
 culiar distinction." 
 
 *' Oh, mother, I will take the greatest 
 care," said Lucy ; " you shall see as I 
 grow up ; and thank you for explainino- 
 all this to me." 
 
 " Perhaps, my dear, part of what I 
 have been saying is rather above your 
 comprehension?" 
 
 " No, mamma ; not at all. If it is not 
 conceited to say so, I think I understand 
 
12 
 
 it all perfectly well ; and now I know what 
 is right and wrong, and my mind is settled ; 
 and I am happy gain, and very glad 
 that I may have the pleasure of learning 
 again from papa ; and, above all, glad 
 that I may go on again with Harry. And 
 here he comes, mamma ; I see him from 
 this window, coming along the path from 
 my uncle's. Oh, mamma ! he has a great 
 walking stick in his hand, and he is hob- 
 bling like an old man of an hundred and 
 ten." 
 
 '^ I hope he has not hurt himself," 
 said her mother, coming to the win- 
 dow. 
 
 *' No, mamma, I believe he is only in 
 play. There ! the old man is running as 
 well as ever he did in his life ; and I will 
 run and meet him." 
 
 As soon as Lucy was near enough to 
 make her voice heard, she asked her 
 brother why he walked with his uncle's 
 walking stick ? as she supposed it to be. 
 
 " It is not his," said Harry, " it is mine ; 
 my uncle has given it to me." 
 
13 
 
 " Yours ! and it is quite new ; I never 
 saw it before. How beautifully varnished ! 
 and what a pretty head ! But why did my 
 uncle give it to you, Harry ? It would be 
 of use to him, and it will be of none to 
 you," said TiUcy. 
 
 " There you are mistaken ; I beg your 
 pardon, Lucy. It will be of as much use 
 to me as it would be to him, and of the 
 same sort of use," said Harry. 
 
 ^* Same sort of use !" said Lucy; '' but 
 of what sort?" 
 
 " Guess, " said Harry. 
 
 " I suppose you mean in play, to act an 
 old man, as you did just now ?" 
 
 " No, in earnest useful," said Harry. 
 
 ^'What can you do with it?" said Lucy 
 " for you are too young to walk with it, 
 and too old to ride upon it." 
 
 " Too old ! to be sure I am,'' said 
 Harry, indignantly ; " I have not ridden 
 upon a stick these hundred years. Guess 
 again." 
 
 Lucy now wanted to examine this won- 
 derful stick more closely, in hopes of dis- 
 
14 
 
 covering what its merits migLt be, but 
 Harry seemed unwilling to let it out of his 
 hands. 
 
 " Oh ! I know what it is. It is full of 
 money. It is like the staff which the 
 man had in the trial in Don Quixote, 
 which Sancho Panza found out was full of 
 money, because he would not let it out of 
 his hands." 
 
 " I do not in the least know what you 
 mean," said Harry, " for there is no 
 money in this." 
 
 " Then let me look at it ; I will not run 
 away with it. How heavy it is," ob- 
 served Lucy, " what wood can it be made 
 of? — This outside seems to be mahogany, 
 but I never felt any so heavy. It cannot 
 be all wood ; it must be hollow, and there 
 must be something withinside of it." 
 
 " Stop 1 stop ! do not shake it ; do not 
 turn it upside down; you will spoil it," 
 cried Harry. 
 
 " Ho ! ho ! then there is something with- 
 inside of it. I have found that much out," 
 said Lucy ; and you say, ^ Do not ^turn 
 
15 
 
 it upside down,' like the words on the box 
 of glass that came last week ; * Keep this 
 side uppermost.' So I guess that there is 
 glass within your stick. You smile, there 
 is ! Glass ! — Then perhaps it is a spy- 
 glass — a telescope? — a magnifying 
 glass ? — a microscope ? No, none of 
 these ? What can it be ? Of what use 
 can glass be in a walking stick, Harry?" 
 
 *' Of a great deal, as you will acknow- 
 ledge when you find it out. Guess again," 
 said Harry ; " it is a thing that you have 
 seen." 
 
 " But I have seen so many things,"* said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " And of which you know the use," 
 said Harry. 
 
 " But I know the use of many things ! 
 Tell me a little more," said Lucy ; " what 
 is it used for ? " 
 
 " For weighing something" said Harry ; 
 '* stay, I am not sure that it is quite fair 
 to say it is used for weighing a thing, and 
 yet it is something." 
 
 ^* I know now," said Lucy ; " that mo- 
 
16 
 
 tion you made with your hand up and 
 down aofainst the air, told me. The some- 
 thing that it is used for weighing is air, 
 and it is a barometer." 
 
 " Now you have found it out," said 
 Harry. 
 
 " And now I know what makes your 
 stick so heavy," said Lucy. " The quick- 
 silver — the mercury. I remember feel- 
 ing the weight of mercury, when papa put 
 into my hands two cups of the same 
 size, one full of water, and the other full of 
 mercury. How stupid I was not to think 
 of this at first, and not to guess it was a 
 barometer !" 
 
 Harry now showed where his walking 
 stick opened, and he showed her within- 
 side of it a barometer and thermometer ; 
 he explained to her how the quicksilver 
 was screwed up tight, so as to prevent it 
 from shaking. He told her this was called 
 a portable barometer. 
 
 " Yes, it is portable," said Lucy ; '^ it 
 can easily be carried from place to place. 
 It must be convenient to travellers. But 
 
17 
 
 is it in any other way better than the baro- 
 meter which hangs up in papa's room, or 
 than that which stands upon three legs in 
 my uncle's library?" 
 
 Harry said, that he was not sure that it 
 was better for common use, to show the 
 changes of the weather ; " but this," said 
 he, " is not merely a weather-glass, as ba- 
 rometers are sometimes called. This is 
 intended for another purpose." 
 
 " What other purpose?" said Lucy. 
 
 ^' First, let me tell you why my uncle 
 gave it to me," said Harry ; " becatr^ 
 he was pleased with my having taken pains, 
 two years ago, to understand the barome- 
 ter, and with my remembering it now. 
 Then he bid me try to find out the parti- 
 cular use of this portable barometer." 
 
 *^ And did you, Harry?" 
 
 *^ Yes, but I was helped. My father, 
 who was present, put me in the right 
 road. I was very stupid at first. My 
 head went quite off' the wrong way, but 
 my father was very patient, and brought 
 it back again, and set it upon the right 
 
18 
 
 road. Still I was very slow. My uncle 
 thouo^ht I should never find it out. He 
 said it was too difficult, and that my fa- 
 ther had better tell rne. But papa said 
 he was almost sure that I should find it 
 out myself. This encouraged me, and I 
 tried and thought again, and my uncle 
 left off walking up and down the room 
 fretting. He was so good as to be patient 
 too." 
 
 *' That was kind of him," said Lucy ; 
 " I know it is very difficult to be pa- 
 tient with people, if they are slow in 
 finding a thing out, when one knows it 
 all the time. One longs to tell, or to 
 push them on to it." 
 
 " Papa did not push me," said Harry, 
 " that would have thrown me down ; but 
 he pulled, he helped me on gently, step 
 by step, as he does so nicely ; and he let 
 me find it out at last quite by myself." 
 
 " Well, then, you can do the same for 
 me, Harry." 
 
 " I will try," said Harry. 
 
 *' Thank you. But first let me tell you 
 
19 
 
 all that I have been saying to mamma, and 
 all that mamma has said to me." 
 
 She repeated it all, as well as she could, 
 ending with, " Mamma tells me that I 
 may go on with you, Harry, as we used 
 to do; and she said she thought that 
 you would be so kind as to bring me up 
 to you in all you have been learning.*' 
 
 " I will try," said Harry. 
 
 " I hope I shall not be very stupid," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " No, no, Lucy, 1 dare say you will 
 not; do not begin by thinking you will, 
 that is a very bad way ; because then 
 you go on, thinking you are afraid you 
 will be stupid, instead of attending to 
 what is asked and said to you. Now, 
 Lucy, suppose you were at the bottom 
 of a deep well." 
 
 " If I were at the bottom of a well, 
 then I should find out the truth ; because 
 you know the common proverb, as Mr. 
 Cranbourne said, that truth is at the bot- 
 tom of a well." 
 
 " Nonsense," my dear Lucy, cried Harry; 
 
20 
 
 " now if you go to your wit, and what 
 Mr. Cranbourne says, I cannot attempt 
 to talk to you about the barometer." 
 
 " Well, I will be very attentive," said 
 Lucy. " Suppose, then, I was at the 
 bottom of a well. But should not I be 
 drowned ? " added she, in a low voice. 
 
 " Very true, I should not have said the 
 bottom of a well, but the bottom of a deep 
 pit," said Harry. 
 
 " Oh, that is another affair," said Lucy, 
 " I like that better. Now, then, I am at 
 the bottom of a deep pit." 
 
 " Now, then, which do you think would 
 weigh the heaviest, the air at the bottom 
 of this pit, or the air at the top of a high 
 house?" 
 
 " I think it would weigh heaviest at 
 the bottom of the pit," said Lucy. 
 
 " Why ? " asked Harry. 
 
 " Oh ! my dear, such an easy ques- 
 tion," said Lucy. 
 
 " Well, answer it at any rate," said 
 Harry. 
 
 '' Because, in the bottom of the pit, 
 
21 
 
 the air in the pit is added to the air that 
 is above the pit, and also you must add 
 all the air that reaches to the top of the 
 house." 
 
 *^ I believe you understand it. Suppose 
 you took this barometer to the bottom of 
 the pit, do you think that the mercury 
 would rise or fall ? My dear Lucy pray 
 think before you answer." 
 
 Lucy thought, and answered : " I think 
 it would rise at the bottom of the pit." 
 
 *' Right; now if you took it to the top 
 of a high house, would it rise or fall?" 
 
 " I think it would fall," replied Lucy. 
 
 "Why?" said Harry. 
 
 " Because then there would be less 
 weight pressing upon the quicksilver in 
 the cup, and therefore less quicksilver 
 would be pressed up into the tube." 
 
 " Very well indeed, Lucy ; I see you 
 remember all papa taught us about the 
 barometer. Now suppose the pit was 
 sixty feet deep, and that the house was 
 forty feet high. Forty and sixty make a 
 hundred, you know." 
 
22 
 
 " To be sure," said Lucy. " Well ? " 
 
 " Well," said Harry, " I must go 
 slowly. Suppose that you observe exactly 
 how much the quicksilver falls, when you 
 take it from the bottom of the pit to the 
 top of the house, you would have a mea- 
 sure by which you could judge of the 
 whole height and depth." 
 
 " I see I should," said Lucy ; " I see I 
 I see the use of your barometer, and it is 
 very useful." 
 
 " But you do not see all yet," said 
 Harry. " By marking this you would not 
 only know how much the quicksilver falls 
 in that hundred feet; but by dividing it, 
 and making a scale, you might know the 
 same thing afterwards, in any number of 
 feet, in any height to which you might 
 take the barometer ; and by this you 
 would have an easy way of measuring 
 the height of mountains." 
 
 " Very ingenious ! very convenient ! " 
 said Lucy. " Now I understand the use 
 of your portable barometer perfectly." 
 
 " Not perfectly," said Harry. " There 
 
23 
 
 is a great deal more to be learned about 
 heat at different heights, and rarefaction 
 of the air. But I will not puzzle you 
 with that, especially as I am not clear 
 about it yet myself. But this is the 
 general notion, which papa says is quit€ 
 enough at first." 
 
 " Quite enough for me," said Lucy. 
 " Thank you, Harry, for telling me no 
 more." 
 
 " I wish! oh how I wish !" cried 
 Harry, " that we had a mountain to mea- 
 sure with my portable barometer !" 
 
 " But," said Lucy, ^' a mountain w411 
 not come to you, for wishing for it, any 
 more than to Mahomet" 
 
 "Mahomet!" repeated Harry. "What 
 do you mean?" 
 
 " Do not you know, Harry, the com- 
 mon saying, Since the mountain will 
 not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must 
 go to the mountain? You were by, 
 Harry, when I read this in our Universal 
 
24 
 
 History to mamma. Do not you remem- 
 ber it?" 
 
 " No, I forget it. How much better 
 you, Lucy, remember some sorts of things 
 than I do." 
 
 " And how much worse I understand 
 other sorts of things than you do ! there- 
 fore, as mamma says, we can help one 
 another, and then in time we shall know 
 twice as much between us. My dear 
 Harry, how convenient that will be, and 
 how happy we shall be." 
 
 " Very happy ; but we cannot be al- 
 ways together," said Harry, " so we must 
 learn to remember what we want for our- 
 selves, or it will be rather inconvenient 
 when we are separate." 
 
 " We shall not be separated for a great 
 while," said Lucy. " Papa said yesterday 
 to mamma, I heard him, that you are not 
 to go to school yet." 
 
 '' I am very glad of that," said Harry, 
 " for I shall be so happy going on at home, 
 learning from my father, and with you, 
 Lucy ! But, my dear, to go back to Ma- 
 
25 
 
 hornet, for I do not like to let that go, 
 without in the least understanding what 
 
 it means." 
 
 " Never mind ; only a bit of wit," said 
 
 Lucy. 
 
 ** But cannot you explain it to me?" 
 
 said Harry. 
 
 " No, it is so easy, that if you do not 
 see it at first, I cannot make it plainer," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " Do try," said Harry. 
 
 " It means only that Mahomet was 
 foolish for commanding the mountain, in 
 a braggadocio way, to come to him; and 
 when all the people standing by expected, 
 perhaps, that the mountain should obey 
 him, and come at his bidding, and when 
 it did not stir, he came off in a shabby 
 way, by saying, that since the mountain 
 did not come to him, he must go to the 
 mountain." 
 
 ''Is that all!" said Harry; "but you 
 told me it was a common saying." 
 
 " Yes, afterwards it came to be a com- 
 
 VOL. I. c 
 
26 
 
 mon saying, whenever a person proposes 
 something, which seems fine and grand, 
 and which they cannot really do, and 
 when they come off with doing some- 
 thing common and easy, then comes the 
 saying about Mahomet and the moun- 
 tain." 
 
 " Thank you," said Harry, in a tone as 
 if he had said, ^' Thank you for nothing." 
 " But still I do not understand how this 
 applied to my wishing for a mountain to 
 measure with my portable barometer." 
 
 " Oh ! my dear Harry, do not be so 
 grave about it," said Lucy. 
 
 " I only look grave, because I am try- 
 ing to understand," said Harry, " how the 
 story applied." 
 
 " I suppose it did not apply , as you 
 call it," said Lucy, after considering for a 
 few moments. *' But do not let us talk 
 any more of it." 
 
 " Only tell me how it came into your 
 head?" said Harry. 
 
 " I cannot tell," said Lucy : " when you 
 
27 
 
 said something about wishing the moun- 
 tain would come to you — " 
 
 " No, no," interrupted Harry, " that 
 was not what I said exactly." 
 
 " Well, never mind exactly^ about such 
 a thing as this, my dear Harry," said 
 Lucy; '^ I only know, that whatever it was 
 that you said, the sound of the words 
 about mountain, brouo^ht the mountain 
 and Mahomet into my head." 
 
 " The sound of the words," said Harry ; 
 " so, after all, the words only came 
 jingling into your head from the sound, 
 and had nothing to do with the business ; 
 and I have been all this while trying to 
 make sense of nonsense." 
 
 " I told you it was nonsense at first," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " You told me it was wit," said Harry. 
 
 " Well, my dear, if one tries to explain 
 wit, it often turns into nonsense." 
 
 *' Then what great good is there in 
 wit ? " 
 
 " If you understand it at first, it is very 
 diverting ; that is good," said Lucy. 
 
 c2 
 
28 
 
 " But if I cannot understand it at first," 
 said Harry. 
 
 " Why, then, I cannot help it," said 
 Lucy. 
 
 '^ That is rather provoking,*' said Harry. 
 
 *' More provoking for me," said Lucy, 
 " this time. I have been trying and try- 
 ing to explain ; but in explaining, the wit 
 is lost, the pleasure at least is all gone." 
 
 " But that was not my fault," said 
 Harry. 
 
 " Yes, but it was, my dear, for not 
 understanding it at first," 
 
 " That is the same thing you said be- 
 fore, my dear Lucy." 
 
 " Because it is the truth, my dear, and 
 I have nothing else to say, Harry." 
 
 " And I have only to make the same 
 answer I made before, Lucy; that if I 
 cannot understand it I cannot," 
 
 " And I come round again to ' I cannot 
 help it, Harry.' " 
 
 " That is arguing in a circle, as papa 
 says," observed Harry. 
 
 " I do not know what is meant by 
 
29 
 
 arguing in a circle," said Lucy ; " 1 sup- 
 pose it is something in Euclid." 
 
 " No, my dear, Euclid never argues in 
 a circle, he only argues about a circle or 
 circles," 
 
 " I?i and about,'' said Lucy ; " Oh, let 
 us say no more about it. I hate saying 
 so much about one thing." 
 
 " I like to stick to one thing, till I un- 
 derstand it," said Harry. 
 
 " But when you can't ! " said Lucy ; 
 " you really are so slow, Harry, about 
 wit." 
 
 " Perhaps I am a little slow," said 
 Harry; " but recollect, Lucy, that you 
 acknowledged yourself, at last, that the 
 story did not apply, so how could I un- 
 derstand it?" 
 
 " Well, I acknowledge," said Lucy ; 
 ** but that excuse will do only for this 
 once." 
 
 " I dare say I shall find another next 
 time," said Harry. '' But now look, 
 Lucy, at those two men carrying that 
 
30 
 
 long ladder across the lawn. What are 
 they going to do with it, I want to know ? " 
 
 They were going to carry it to a church 
 in the village, the steeple of which wanted 
 some repair ; his father followed the men, 
 and Harry asked if Lucy and he might 
 go with him. His father gave him leave, 
 and Harry carried his portable barometer 
 with him, saying, that he thought he could 
 try it at the top of the church. 
 
 In the church there were stairs which 
 led up to the gallery, but there was no 
 way of going up to the top of the tower, 
 but by means of a ladder. The men 
 fixed it steadily, and Harry's father went 
 up. Harry wanted to follow, but his father 
 said he must not come yet, because he 
 had not time to think of him, till their 
 business was finished. 
 
 '' My dear Harry," said Lucy, " I think 
 it is very dangerous ; you will never be 
 able to go to such a height. I am almost 
 afraid to look at papa going up, it makes 
 my head giddy." 
 
31 
 
 And when his father called him, she 
 held the flap of his coat, and said, '^ In- 
 deed, Harry, you had better give it up." 
 
 ^' Give it up !" no, that he would not. 
 
 He began to run up the ladder with 
 he barometer in his hand. But his father 
 called to him and bid him " stop," and or- 
 dered him to give the barometer to one 
 of the masons, who was behind him, whom 
 he requested to carry it for him, and to 
 follow him up the ladder. 
 
 " Oh ! papa, I am used, you know, to 
 mounting ladders, and I am safe without 
 any body to take care of rae." 
 
 " Do as you are desired, or you shall 
 not come up at all," said his father. 
 
 Harry obeyed ; and when he got high 
 up on the ladder, he felt that his father 
 was right; for though he had been used 
 to go up ladders, he had never gone up 
 one that was nearly so high. He felt an 
 unusual sensation of giddiness in his head. 
 He was glad the man was close behind 
 him, he held fast to the sides of the lad- 
 der, stepped up very carefullv, and seized 
 
32 
 
 his father's hand, who was waiting for 
 him at the top. When landed safely on 
 the roof of the tower, he looked about 
 him : when he looked down, his head still 
 felt a little giddy, and it was some mo- 
 ments before he recovered himself suffi- 
 ciently to think even of his portable baro- 
 meter. Then he recollected, that, in his 
 hurry to come up, he had forgotten to mark 
 how high the mercury stood when he was 
 on the ground. He did not like the 
 thoughts of immediately going down the 
 ladder again. It occurred to him, that it 
 would do exactly as well, to mark the 
 height at which the quicksilver now stood, 
 at the top of the tower, and afterwards to 
 see how much it would rise when he got 
 to the bottom ; but Lucy had his pencil 
 and paper below. He wrote the figures 
 on a bit of slate, which one of the men had 
 in his hand. After being a little used to 
 it, he grew quite at ease at this height, 
 and could think as well as when on the 
 firm ground. When he was to go down 
 the ladder, he was a little startled by hear- 
 
33 
 
 ing Lucy cry out, *^ Oh, Harry, take 
 
 >5 
 
 care. 
 
 His father stopped him, told Lucy she 
 was very foolish to call out, desired her 
 to go into the church, and wait there till 
 they should come; which she did, and 
 very glad she was, when she saw Harry 
 and her father come down safely. 
 
 Upon examining the bit of slate, on 
 which he had written his figures, and 
 which he had put into his bosom while 
 he came down the ladder, he found that 
 they were so rubbed, that it was impos- 
 sible to make them out. 
 
 Lucy, who was afraid of his going up 
 again, was by turns sure, that one figure 
 was an eight, a nine, or a nought. 
 
 This would not do for Harry, he must 
 go up again. His father said he was 
 right ; and this time he wrote down what 
 the barometer was before he went up, and 
 carried paper and pencil with him. His 
 father was so good as to accompany him. 
 It was all done rightly, and this time Lucy 
 did not say a word till Harry's foot was 
 
 c 5 
 
34 
 
 off the last rung of the ladder, and safe on 
 the ground. 
 
 Now they knew exactly how much the 
 quicksilver had fallen, in going up to the 
 top of the tower, and at what it had stood 
 at the bottom. Harry said, that this must 
 be compared with a table of measures, 
 which he had at home, which would tell 
 the height, in feet and inches. 
 
 And here be it noted, that on this, 
 and many other occasions, Lucy's readiness 
 in arithmetic was of use to her brother, 
 when he came to his calculations. The 
 habit of writing her figures exactly under- 
 neath each other, in the right rows, and 
 of drawing straight lines and making neat 
 little figures, all proved of advantage when 
 she was called upon to write down totals 
 for him in a great hurry, or to go over 
 and copy clearly his scrawled sums in 
 addition, multiplication, subtraction, and 
 division. 
 
 On the present occasion difficulties oc- 
 curred, and Lucy sat beside Harry for a 
 quarter of an hour, writing down and rub- 
 
35 
 
 bing out figures upon a slate, and com- 
 plying by turns with contrary orders. 
 
 " Lucy, my dear, write down 452, and 
 subtract it from 930 — have you done it?" 
 
 " Stay a bit — presently — yes." 
 
 " My dear, I meant to say add, did 1 
 say subtract? — no, add, add." 
 
 '^Well, I have added." 
 
 " Now multiply that by — no, stay — 
 first it must be divided — stop. — I do not 
 understand this table : there is something 
 about heio;ht above the level of the sea 
 here, that I cannot make out. Then what 
 is this about expansion,'' continued he, 
 reading. " Oh, my dear Lucy ; we are 
 all wrong. I do not know how to allow 
 for the thermometer ; and here is a calcu- 
 lation about expansion and proportion, 
 and heaven knows what. Oh ! it is all 
 wrono^ — I do not know what I am about.' 
 
 This Lucy had suspected, but she had 
 the good nature not to say so ; and as 
 all she had done was right, she found it 
 easy to be patient. Harry ran to look 
 for the article ^or^^^/e barometer; no, ha- 
 
36 
 
 rometer, portable, in a Cyclopedia; but 
 there opened to Harry's eyes such a quarto 
 scene of tables, and fractions, and alge- 
 braic signs, as quite dismayed hini,^and 
 Lucy stood in stupefied silence beside him. 
 At leno^th he observed, 
 
 " There is a great difference between 
 having a general notion of any thing, and 
 knovs^ing it thoroughly. I thought I un- 
 derstood the use of this barometer perfectly, 
 but w^hen I come to try, I cannot make it 
 out w^ell." 
 
 "It is too difficult," said Lucy; "you 
 will only puzzle yourself" — (she offered 
 to shut the book). 
 
 " No, no, 1 will try and puzzle it out, 
 and w^hen papa comes in, he "will help 
 me, and show me my mistake." 
 
 When his father came in, he did help 
 Harry, and with his assistance, and pa- 
 tience, it was all made clear. 
 
 " But after all," said Lucy, " though 
 you have found out the height of the 
 church, it was a difficult way of doing 
 it, with all these calculations. Would not 
 
37 
 
 it have been easier to have measured it 
 by letting down from the top a string and 
 a vreight, a plumb line, as it is called I be- 
 lieve^ then you could have measured the 
 string, and you would have had no diffi- 
 culty." 
 
 "Very true," said Harry, " that would 
 have been the easiest way in this instance, 
 because we could get to the top of the 
 church at once, and let down a plumb 
 line ; but consider, Lucy, when we want to 
 measure high crooked mountains, miles 
 high, with ins and outs, and ups and 
 downs, how difficult that would be. Be- 
 sides, this puzzle with the portable baro- 
 meter would not plague me again; it was 
 only because it was my first time of trial ; 
 and I am glad that we have conquered 
 the difficulty." 
 
 "It is very good of you to say we, for 
 I did nothing but write down the figures, 
 and do the sums," said Lucy. 
 
 " But that helped me very much, and 
 thank you for doing it so patiently. You 
 
38 
 
 did not yawn above six times. And now, 
 my dear Lucy, if we had but a mountain 
 to measure !" 
 
 *' How happy we should be going to 
 the top of it together, at any rate," said 
 Lucv. 
 
 "LccY, your hair is hanging into your 
 eyes this morning," said her mother. 
 
 " Yes, mother," said Lucy, '' because 
 it is quite out of curl." 
 
 ^' Did you curl it last night, Lucy ? " 
 said her mother. 
 
 "Yes, mamma, I did indeed; and it 
 curled very nicely this morning early ; 
 but I went out in hopes of meeting my 
 uncle, who was to have come to break- 
 fast : and by the time that I came in 
 again, my hair was all as you see. The 
 breakfast bell rang, and I had not time to 
 curl it again." 
 
 Her mother was satisfied, since Lucy 
 had not neglected to curl it at night. 
 
39 
 
 which had sometimes been the case. Her 
 father asked, if she knew what had un- 
 curled her hair when she went out. 
 
 '' The damp of the mornincr, papa," 
 said she : " my hair always goes out of 
 curl in damp weather." 
 
 " So does mine, Lucy," said her mo- 
 ther. " It is not peculiar to your hair, to 
 go out of curl in damp weather." 
 
 '' But, Lucy, what do you mean by your 
 hair going out of curl ? " said her father. 
 
 "Just what you see, papa; that it hangs 
 straight." 
 
 '* You told me the moisture of the morn- 
 ing uncurled it ; do you know how or why 
 it does so?" said her father. 
 
 " No, papa, not in the least; I wish 
 you would tell me." 
 
 '' When your hair is curled, the parts 
 of one side of each hair are pressed close 
 together, and the parts on the other side 
 are stretched out. Give me that piece of 
 packthread." 
 
 It was loosely twisted. He coiled up 
 a bit of it, and showed her, that in the 
 
40 
 
 inner circle the parts are pressed together, 
 and in the outer they are stretched. 
 
 "Now I see," said Lucy; "and you 
 mean, that it is just the same with my 
 hair, when I curl it. But still I do not 
 understand how the damp straightens it." 
 
 " That you shall see directly," said her 
 father; and he dipped the curled pack- 
 thread into a cup of water ; when it was 
 all wet, it became straight. 
 
 " Yes, it has uncurled, like my hair," 
 said Lucy. " But how ? " 
 
 " Look, and you will see, that the water 
 has filled all the interstices, or vacancies, 
 which you observed between the different 
 parts of the cord. Now there are in your 
 hair, and in all hair, pores, or small va- 
 cancies, which can be filled with moisture, 
 like the interstices in this packthread, and 
 which imbibe moisture from the air, as 
 this packthread imbibed the water, and 
 you see it filled the pores on the inside, 
 as well as on the outside." 
 
 " Thank you, papa," said Lucy, " that 
 is very nice. To know why my hair un- 
 
41 
 
 curls is at least a comfort. Now I un- 
 derstand it all." 
 
 ^'Not all," said her father. '' There is 
 a property of hair which you do not yet 
 know ; that when it is wet, that is, when 
 its pores are filled with moisture — " 
 
 '• I see, papa ; you mean it swells out, 
 and becomes thicker, like this cord." 
 
 " Not exactly like that cord, Lucy ; that 
 cord shortens as it swells out in breadth ; 
 but hair lengthens when it is moist. All 
 human hair is easily affected by moisture." 
 
 " Very easily, indeed," said Lucy, divid- 
 ing her uncurled locks on her forehead, 
 and trying to put them out of her way. 
 " I was not in the damp above ten mi- 
 nutes, and yet you see how straight my 
 hair has become. Indeed, papa, as you 
 say, human hair is very easily affected by 
 moisture/' 
 
 " Yes, fortunately," said Harry. 
 
 "Fortunately!" repeated Lucy; *^ un- 
 fortunately you mean. Why do you say 
 fortunately ? " 
 
 " I have a reason, and a good one," 
 
42 
 
 said Harry. " It is fortunate that hair has 
 that property. For one reason, for one 
 purpose, useful to all men and women, but 
 especially to men of science." 
 
 " Fortunate and useful !" said Lucy. 
 " Brother, how can it possibly be for- 
 tunate or useful to you, or to men of 
 science in particular, or to any body, that 
 my hair should so easily go out of curl in 
 damp weather?" 
 
 " Not your hair in particular, Lucy, 
 but hair in general," said Harry. 
 
 " What use," said Lucy, '^ if every 
 body's hair in the whole world was to 
 go out of curl like this every damp day — 
 what use could it be but to make them all 
 look very deplorable, as mamma says I 
 do when my hair is in this condition? 
 What good would this do to men of 
 science, or any men?" 
 
 *' You do not understand me," said 
 Harry, smiling. " Did you never hear of 
 an hygrometer?" 
 
 "Hygrometer!" said Lucy, ''Yes, I 
 have often heard of an hygrometer. I 
 
43 
 
 heard papa talking to you about hygrome- 
 ters very lately, and reading a great deal, 
 last Wednesday — no, last Thursday." 
 
 ^' No matter," my dear, interrupted her 
 father, " what day you heard me reading 
 about it : do you know or do you not 
 know what an hygrometer is?" 
 
 Lucy confessed she did not know 
 exactlij what it was ; but she thought it 
 had somethino; to do with a barometer 
 and a thermometer, because it ends in 
 meter; and she remembered long ago 
 her father had told her, that meter meant 
 measure^ and comes from some Greek 
 word that means to measure ; therefore, 
 she supposed an hygrometer must be a 
 machine, or an instrument for measuring 
 something, but what, she did not know ; 
 she guessed it was something about the 
 air. 
 
 Her father said, that she was so far 
 right in thinking that it is an instrument 
 used to measure something. He told her, 
 that it measures moisture in the air ; and 
 that the name hygrometer is composed of 
 
44 
 
 two Greek words, hugros, moist, or mois- 
 ture, and metron, measure, 
 
 Lucy liked this name, which contains, 
 as she observed, the history of the thing ; 
 and now she knew this, she thought she 
 could never forget it. 
 
 Their uncle had not yet come in to 
 breakfast, and their father beginning to 
 read the newspaper to their mother, 
 Harry and Lucy went on at the farther 
 end of the room, talking to each other. 
 
 " Now you can guess," said Harry, 
 " why I said that it was very lucky that 
 your hair uncurls so easily in the damp. 
 You observed yourself, that you could 
 always know by your hair whether it is 
 a damp day or not, whether air is moist 
 or not." 
 
 " So hair is an hygrometer," said Lucy, 
 ^* for it measures moisture. I am sure my 
 hair might say, if it could speak Greek, 
 Hygrometer ; or, in plain English, 'inoist^- 
 I measure!^ 
 
 " Very true," said Harry ; " but still 
 you do not know the measure exactly of 
 
45 
 
 HOW moist, how damp the day may be ; 
 do you ?" 
 
 " Yes, on very, very damp days my 
 hair comes quite out of curl, as you see 
 it now," said Lucy, " and hangs quite 
 straight ; but it only comes a little out 
 of curl on days that are only a little damp 
 or damp-ish." 
 
 "A little damp! * Damp-ish!'" re- 
 peated Harry ; " that is very well for 
 common talking, but it does not describe 
 exactly how damp. I do not know what 
 degree of moisture you mean to express 
 by damp-i^^." 
 
 " Pish ! " echoed Lucy. Harry would 
 not smile. 
 
 " You have not yet told me, Lucy," 
 said he, gravely, " how the hygrometer 
 is made to show the measure of mois- 
 ture exactly." 
 
 " I do not know exactly^ brother. But 
 suppose, for instance, you knew how long 
 my hair is when it is quite dry ; then in 
 damp weather when it is moist, and hangs 
 straight, you could measure how long it 
 
46 
 
 has grown ; I mean how much it has 
 lengthened by the damp." 
 
 " I could measure," said Harry, " but 
 how ? " 
 
 " You could see whether my hair comes 
 down as far as to my eyebrows, or only 
 this far, or this far," said Lucy, touching 
 different points on her forehead. " If I 
 had a lookino^-o^lass I would measure this 
 for myself." 
 
 " This might do," said Harry ; " but at 
 best it would do only for yourself; and 
 but badly for yourself, because you must, 
 to mark your points, have disagreeable 
 spots on your forehead always." 
 
 '' 1 should not like that," said Lucy, 
 " nor would mamma, I am sure." 
 
 " Besides," continued Harry, '' it 
 would be rather inconvenient to me to 
 run in search of you, with a pair of 
 compasses and my ruler, to measure your 
 hair and your scale on your forehead. 
 This would be rather an inconvenient 
 hygrometer." 
 
 " Rather, I acknowledge," said Lucy, 
 
47 
 
 " you would twitch all the hair off my 
 head too, in measuring each hair, I sup- 
 pose ; and I should be afraid that you 
 would put out my eyes with the points 
 of your compasses, when you came to 
 measure the scale on my forehead, I 
 should not like to be your hygrometer." 
 
 " I would much rather have one that 
 would always stand or hang in my room," 
 said Harry ; " or one that I could carry 
 about in my pocket, better still ! Could 
 you manage that for me? Could you 
 find out how to do that? I found out 
 how to do it." 
 
 " Did you indeed, brother? and do you 
 think I can?" 
 
 " Yes, if you think well, and if you 
 go on thinking," said Harry. 
 
 '' I will, then. But tell me exactly what 
 I am to think about, and what is to be 
 done," said Lucy. 
 
 Harry pulled a hair out of his own 
 head, and laid it on a piece of white 
 paper before her. " There," said he, 
 stretching it out, "you see its length. We 
 
48 
 
 will suppose this hair is as dry as it can 
 be. Now I will dip it into this bason of 
 water. Now that it has been wet, it is 
 longer than it was when it was dry." 
 
 " Yes ; but we want to know how much 
 longer," said Lucy. " Well, it is easy to 
 lay it on this sheet of paper, and mea- 
 sure, as exactly as you please, how much 
 longer it is when it is wet than it was 
 when it was quite dry." 
 
 " Very well," said Harry, " and I can 
 tell you, that you would find it to be one 
 fortieth of its length longer. Then you 
 have the utmost leno-th between extreme 
 moisture, and extreme dryness." 
 
 " And," continued Lucy, " I could 
 divide this line on the paper between the 
 two black dots, by which you marked the 
 points to which it stretched when it was 
 dry, and when it was damp ; and, if di- 
 vided exactly, it would be what you call 
 a scale ; you could measure how much, 
 in different degrees of damp or dry, it 
 stretches or shortens." 
 
 " Very well, indeed," said Harry ; " and 
 
49 
 
 the scale on paper would be better than on 
 your forehead, you see. That's one point 
 fixed." 
 
 " That's one point gained," said Lucy, 
 "now what is to be done next?" 
 
 " Next, you are to find out how, with- 
 out the trouble of continually plucking 
 hairs out of my head or yours, and wetting 
 or drying, and measuring them, you might 
 know every day or hour, or at any time 
 you please, how damp the air is, or how 
 much moisture it contains." 
 
 ** If I could but make the hair measure 
 itself," said Lucy, '' and mark or show 
 how far it shrinks or lengthens on this 
 paper in any time." 
 
 " Aye, if you could," said Harry, " that 
 is the question." 
 
 " Suppose I had a very, very, very little 
 weight," said Lucy ; " so little, that this 
 hair could support it without breaking, 
 then I could tie it to one end of the hair, 
 and hang the hair by the other end to 
 something, suppose a piece of wire stuck 
 into the wall : and I would put this paper, 
 
 VOL. 1. D 
 
50 
 
 with our scale upon it, against the wall, 
 just behind the weight, and when you look 
 at it, you would see how much the hair 
 had shrunk or lengthened, at any time, in 
 damp or dry." 
 
 "There papa!" cried Harry; "Lucy 
 has made out as far as I did the first 
 time I thought of making an hygrometer !" 
 
 Lucy looked much pleased with herself, 
 and with her brother for being pleased with 
 her. 
 
 " And have I really invented an hygro- 
 meter, Harry?" cried she. 
 
 " Yes, but not a perfect one, my dear," 
 said Harry ; " there is a great deal more 
 to be done." 
 
 " What more ? " said Lucy . 
 
 "To come to breakfast, in the first place," 
 said her father. 
 
 This Lucy was ready to do, for she was 
 a little tired ; but by the time she had 
 refreshed herself by eating half her break- 
 fast, she returned to the question — 
 " What more is to be done, brother, about 
 the hygrometer ? " 
 
51 
 
 " To make it more convenient," said 
 Harry. " In your way, it must always be 
 stuck up against a wall; and besides, 
 your divisions are so very, very small, 
 that you can hardly see how much the 
 hair lengthens or shortens." 
 
 " You might take a magnifying glass," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " Well, that would help ; but cannot 
 you think of another way ? " 
 
 Lucy thought for a little while, and went 
 on eating her breakfast, and presently an- 
 swered, " No, brother; I can think only 
 of taking a larger magnifying glass, a glass 
 that magnifies more. Will tliat do?" 
 
 " Still there is an easier method ; put 
 the magnifying glass out of your head." 
 
 " It must be a more difficult, instead of 
 an easier way, for I cannot find it out," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " But it is easier, I assure you, when 
 you have found it out," said Harry. 
 " Come, I will help you a little," con- 
 tinued he, after she had considered for 
 some time. " Look at the hand of that 
 
 D 2 
 
 ^^ OF ^^ ^^^ 
 
52 
 
 clock," and he pointed to the dial-plate of 
 a pendule, which was on the chimney- 
 piece opposite to the breakfast-table. 
 " Look, the hand now points at ten. Do 
 you see how far it is from ten to eleven ? 
 Suppose that hand was to move fro^l 
 ten to eleven ? " 
 
 " Well, suppose," said Lucy ; '* I can 
 easily suppose this." 
 
 ^' Then which would have moved the 
 farthest 1 which would have gone over the 
 most space ? the point of the hand, which 
 is at the outside of the dial-plate, or that 
 part of the hand, which is closest to the 
 centre ? " 
 
 " The point of the hand, which is at the 
 outennost part of the circle, would have 
 gone the farthest; I mean, would have 
 moved over the most space. The part 
 nearest to the centre would have moved 
 so little, that I suppose I should hardly 
 be able to see or measure by my eye how 
 much." 
 
 *' True," said Harry, " you could not; 
 but you could see, and you could measure 
 
53 
 
 the space from ten to eleven easily ; could 
 not you?" 
 
 " Certainly," said Lucy. 
 
 " You could guess the measure even by 
 your eye, v^ithout taking compasses or 
 magnifying glass," said Harry. 
 
 *' Now I see what you are about," said 
 Lucy; " I must have a little, leetle hand, 
 and dial plate, for my hygrometer, to 
 show and to measure the least motion of 
 the hair in shortening or lengthening." 
 
 " Right," said Harry ; '^ so far right." 
 
 " Do not tell me any more," said Lucy ; 
 " I can do it all for myself now, and in a 
 minute." 
 
 " Do not be in such a hurry, my dear," 
 said Harry, " or you will never do it." 
 
 " Hurry ! I am not in the least hurry," 
 said Lucy, " only I like to be quick. 
 Well, I would fasten the end of the hair to 
 the axle, so as to make every, the smallest 
 motion of the hair, move the hand." 
 
 She paused. She was not quite clear 
 of the manner in which this was to be 
 done. 
 
54 
 
 "I will help you," said Harry. "Sup- 
 pose — " 
 
 "Suppose," said his mother, "that you 
 were to let Lucy finish her breakfast." 
 
 " I will, and welcome," said Harry ; 
 " for now she has the principle of an hy- 
 grometer, which papa was explaining to 
 me the other day, and of which I will 
 show her a plate after breakfast-—" 
 
 " A plate ! " said Lucy ; " I may as well 
 have the plate at breakfast, may not I ? " 
 
 " By a plate, I mean an engraving," 
 said Harry ; " did not you know that ?" 
 
 " Oh ! yes, to be sure," said Lucy ; 
 " I was only in play." 
 
 Breakfast finished, Harry went to the 
 library to look for the book, and Lucy 
 followed, eager to see the drawing and 
 description of what she had been trying 
 to invent. He showed her in Rees's Cy- 
 clopedia two engravings of different hy- 
 grometers. 
 
 " This," said he, pointing to one, was 
 
55 
 
 invented by a great English engineer, of 
 the name of Smeaton ; and this other by 
 Monsieur de Saussure, the famous Swiss 
 traveller. Yours, Lucy my dear, is not 
 exactly either of these ; it is most like 
 Smeaton's, but he uses a cord, with a 
 weight hung to it, instead of a hair. It 
 is said, however, that a hair is better than 
 a cord for our purpose." 
 
 " And how does the other man, M. de 
 Saussure, manage with the hair?" said 
 Lucy. 
 
 Harry pointed to the engraving, and 
 showed her, that one end of the hair is 
 fastened, as she had proposed, to the axle 
 of the hand, and the hair wo^nd round 
 the axle ; but the other end, instead of 
 having a weight hung to it, is strained 
 tight, and fastened to a frame of w^ood 
 below. Then, when the haii shortens or 
 lengthens, with dryness oi moisture, it 
 turns the axle of the hand a litde, or much, 
 according to the shortening of the hair. 
 
 "Turns the axle of the hand !" repeated 
 Lucy. " I see it would turn, when the 
 
56 
 
 hair shortens, because that would pull it 
 round ; but I do not see how, when the 
 hair lengthens, that it would turn back the 
 axle and the hand. I think that the hair 
 would only loosen round the axle." 
 
 "True, Lucy, and accurate," cried Harry, 
 with pleasure in his eyes ; " but look 
 again at this engraving. See here a weight 
 hanging to this little cord, which is wound 
 round the axle, in a contrary direction to 
 the hair. The weight is just enough to 
 keep the hair constantly strained, so as to 
 prevent it from loosening, as you rightly 
 said it would, round the axle, if there was 
 not any thing to prevent it, when the hair 
 lengthens from moisture. Then, as it 
 is kept stretched, it turns the axle and 
 hand." 
 
 " Yes; now I see no difficulty," said 
 Lucy. " I understand it quite ; and I am 
 glad I told you the difficulty, for you 
 have cleared it away. I hate to feel that 
 I have only half understood, and to leave 
 off in a puzzle. But, Harry, here are 
 prints of a great many more hygrometers." 
 
57 
 
 " Yes, made of different substances," 
 said Harry ; *^ many things beside hair, 
 you know, can be used to show the 
 changes of moisture and dryness; all 
 things which show these easily. Some of 
 them we have observed ourselves often." 
 
 " Oh ! yes," said Lucy ; "salt and sugar, 
 for instance, and some kinds of wood, 
 which warp with the changes of the wea- 
 ther from wet to dry. The wood of this 
 window frame, I remember, was swelled 
 so much during the rain last week, that 
 we could not open the sash." 
 
 " Yes, that sash is made of deal ; the 
 wood of fir tree, you know," said Harry; 
 " and this sort of wood shrinks and ex- 
 pands quickly with dryness and moisture." 
 
 " I recollect," interrupted Lucy, " I 
 read something about a creeping wooden 
 hygrometer, in the notes to the Botanic 
 Garden. My dear, I remember it perfectly, 
 because it was entertaining. There was a 
 wooden automaton, a machine that moved 
 of itself—" 
 
 " I know of no such machine," inter- 
 
 D 5 
 
58 
 
 rupted Harry. *^ If it moved, it must have 
 been moved by some cause." 
 
 ^' Well, the damp, I suppose, was the 
 cause. Now let me go on, Harry. It was 
 a wooden automaton, with a long back, 
 and four feet, with iron-pointed shoes, 
 which clawed on little by little, so that it 
 walked, or crept, or clawed, quite across 
 the floor of its master's room, in a month's 
 time, from the changes of damp and dry. 
 I do not know how, but it was very enter- 
 taining, and it will entertain me now much 
 more if you can show me how it was con- 
 trived. There was, I remember, some- 
 thing about pflueino: the bits of wood that 
 made the back, I do not rightly know 
 how," said Lucy, " cross-ways." 
 
 " Cross-grain, I suppose you mean," 
 said Harry. " We will look for it by and 
 by, and I will try if I can understand and 
 explain it to you. But now go on, and 
 guess some other substances of which hy- 
 grometers are made." 
 
 *' I do not recollect any more ; help me 
 a little," said Lucy. 
 
59 
 
 Harry pointed to his mother's harp. 
 
 "I see mamma's harp," said Lucy, "but 
 that only puts me in mind of the last tune 
 she played." 
 
 " Do not you recollect that a string 
 broke yesterday?" 
 
 " Yes, I do, and how troublesome it 
 was!" said Lucy; '* I remember that 
 Mrs. " 
 
 *' Stay, now, do not go to Mrs. Any- 
 body, but think of the cause of that string 
 breakino;." 
 
 " Mamma said, that it was cracked bv 
 the sudden change of the weather," 
 
 " What change ? " 
 
 '' From dry to damp, I believe," said 
 Lucy. " Oh, now I understand it ; and I 
 know what you mean. In damp weather 
 the moisture from the air gets into the 
 strings, and swells them out, and so shortens 
 them, that if they are held tight at each 
 end, they crack. Those strings are made 
 of catgut. Catgut then would be a good 
 thing for an hygrometer." 
 
 " Yes," said Harry; ^^ but now I will 
 
60 
 
 tell you another thing used for hygrome- 
 ters, which I do not think you could guess 
 — Ivory." 
 
 "Ivory ! no, I never should have thought 
 of that," said Lucy. " I never knew that 
 ivory lengthens and shortens in damp or 
 dry weather." 
 
 '* It does though," said Harry; "there 
 are a great many pores in ivory ; we cannot 
 see them without a magnifying glass, but 
 the moisture gets into these pores, and 
 swells it out. But now, Lucy, there is an- 
 other common thing, which you see every 
 day, which you might guess. When you 
 dip it in water you may see its great pores 
 swelling, without any magnifying glass; 
 and then, when you squeeze the water out, 
 and dry it, it shrinks so that you could 
 hold in your shut hand, what, when full 
 of water, was as large as my head." 
 
 " A spunge ! a spunge !" cried Lucy. 
 " But if a spunge is left in a room by 
 itself, would it suck up water from the 
 air?" 
 
 " Yes, whether it is left in a room by 
 
61 
 
 itself or not," said Harry, " it will absorb 
 (do not say suck up) moisture from the air ; 
 and it g;rows heavier when it is fillino- 
 with moisture, or lighter as it dries. The 
 spunge hygrometer is measured, or mea- 
 sures by weight, not by lengthening or 
 shortening, expanding or contracting. 
 You do not look as if you understand 
 this, Lucy." 
 
 " I do," said Lucy; " but I am grow- 
 ing tired. I think I have had enough 
 about hygrometers." 
 
 " No, no, you cannot be tired so soon ; 
 ^' guess once more," said Harry ; ^* you 
 may easily guess this, because it is a thing 
 used in your dress." 
 
 Lucy had observed, she said, that her 
 gloves often grew damp in wet weather. 
 She guessed leather. It was not what 
 Harry meant ; but he said that he thought 
 leather would do, and he did not know 
 why it had not been used ; perhaps as it 
 takes in moisture so easily, it may not ex- 
 pand or contract equally." 
 
 Encouraged by Harry's approbation of 
 
62 
 
 her good guess of leather, Lucy was willing 
 to try and guess again. ^' But help me/' 
 said she. 
 
 Harry told her, that the thing he meant 
 is stiff, and yet not so stiff but that it can 
 be bent ; it is springy and elastic. 
 
 She thouo^ht of several thino-s which can 
 be bent, but she could not guess right; 
 and then, yawning and stretching herself, 
 she repeated that she was tired, and that 
 she could not guess any more ; Harry 
 must tell her. 
 
 " Then I will tell you — whalebone, my 
 dear. Come, have done yawning," said 
 Harry ; '^ I will not make you guess any 
 more ; now I will show you something 
 entertaining; I will show you a nice little 
 hygrometer, made of an Arabian oats 
 beard." 
 
 " Show it me," said Lucy, stopping in 
 the midst of a full stretch. 
 
 ^' Here, in this print," said Harry. 
 
 " Only a print ! I thought you had the 
 real beard," said Lucy. 
 
 " You might make an hygrometer your- 
 
63 
 
 self, I dare say, of a common English oat 
 beard," said Harry. 
 
 "Well, that I should like," said Lucy ; 
 " You were right after all, Harry, when 
 you said it was lucky that my hair un- 
 curled so easily. How odd it is, Harry, 
 that I have been carrying all my life on 
 my head, without ever thinking of it till 
 this morning, one of the best of hygrome- 
 ters ! My having an hygrometer without 
 knowing it, is like the man who talked 
 prose all his life without knowing it." 
 
 " I do not know what man you mean," 
 said Harry ; " come now, look at it, this 
 Arabian oat hygrometer, Lucy; it is the 
 great Doctor Hook's." 
 
 '^ I do not care about the o-reat Doctor 
 Hook," said Lucy ; " but let me tell you 
 about the man who talked prose without 
 knowing it. He was a man in a play, a 
 very entertaining play papa was reading 
 one evening when you were not listening. 
 There was a maid-servant teachinof her 
 old master his letters, and asking him 
 what he does when he says the letter u. 
 
64 
 
 Now you shall be the old man, and I 
 will be the maid, and I will teach you. 
 Say u." 
 
 " Nonsense, my dear," said Harry. 
 
 " Not at all nonsense," said Lucy ; 
 " you may ask papa." 
 
 " Well, but I have not time now," said 
 Harry. 
 
 "And the maid taught him to fence," 
 continued Lucy ; " if I had but a stick I 
 would show you." 
 
 " Now your head is gone quite off to 
 the play. I shall have no more good of 
 you," said Harry, looking mournfully. 
 " But here comes my uncle," continued 
 he, as his uncle at this moment entered 
 the room. " Uncle, will you look at this 
 hygrometer for me?" 
 
 " I will, Harry, with pleasure," said his 
 obliging uncle. 
 
 " And so will I, Harry," said Lucy, "to 
 oblige you. My head is come back from 
 the play now." 
 
 For about three minutes she was atten- 
 tive, and she understood and admired, to 
 
65 
 
 Harry's hearts content, the Arabian oat 
 hygrometer. 
 
 " Then, now, Lucy, I will show you a 
 much better," cried Harry ; " one which is 
 made of a kind of Indian grass, which grass 
 is extremely sensible." 
 
 " Extremely sensible grass !" interrupted 
 Lucy, laughing. " Uncle, I never heard 
 of extremely sensible grass before! Did 
 you?" 
 
 " I think i/ou are not extremely sensible 
 now, my little niece," said her uncle, " to 
 begin punning, instead of minding what 
 your brother is telling you. Surely you 
 know that sensible means sensitive, that is, 
 having quick, or great sensibility. You 
 know these words are applied to plants, 
 for you have heard of the sensitive plant." 
 
 " Oh ! yes, to be sure, uncle," said 
 Lucy ; " I was only playing. I know the 
 two meanings of the word sensible as well 
 as any body ; and I have not only heard 
 of the sensitive plant, but seen it, at aunt 
 Pierrepoint's ; and not only seen it, and 
 its leaves closing up, and shrinking back 
 
66 
 
 from my touch, but what is more, uncle, I 
 have learned by heart Dr. Darwin's lines on 
 the sensitive plant, the Mimosa." 
 
 She repeated them, and her uncle said, 
 that they were pretty lines, and that she 
 repeated them well. 
 
 " And would not they make a good 
 motto for an hygrometer, uncle?" said 
 she. 
 
 ** Very good," said her uncle. * 
 
 " And now," resumed Harry, '^ let me 
 show you this hygrometer." 
 
 " One other motto, my dear uncle, I 
 have thought of for the barometer," con- 
 tinued Lucy: without considering how 
 much she was trying her brother's pati- 
 ence, she went on repeating, while she 
 held her uncle by the flap of his coat, 
 
 " You charmed, indulgent sylphs, their learned toil. 
 And crown'd with fame your Torricel and Boyle." 
 
 a Torricel!" cried Harry; " I suppose 
 you mean Torricelli." 
 
 '^ No, it is Torricel in the lines, I assure 
 you," said Lucy. 
 
 '^ It is Torricelli out of the lines, I as- 
 
67 
 
 sure you," said Harry. "There never was 
 such a man as Torricel, was there, uncle?" 
 
 Their uncle whispered to Lucy, that 
 Harry was right. 
 
 ''Well, never mii"»d, it must be Torricel 
 here, for the sake of the line," said Lucy, 
 " else it would be too long^. Let me o;o 
 on, I will tell you what the indulgent 
 sylphs taught these people."' She went 
 on repeating. 
 
 *' Beautiful lines, Lucy," said her uncle ; 
 " but I am sure you cannot understand 
 them, as you are not yet acquainted with 
 the air pump." 
 
 "But Harry is," said Lucy, " and he will 
 explain it to me; will not you, Harry?" 
 
 Harry looked very serious, sighed, and 
 said nothino;. 
 
 "Why do you sigh, Harry?" 
 
 " Because," said her uncle, "' he is afraid 
 that he shall never be able to make you 
 understand the air pump, or any thing 
 else, if you are not more attentive." 
 
 " Harry, I beg your pardon," said Lucy. 
 
68 
 
 " But you know I was very attentive at 
 first." 
 
 "And will be very attentive at last I 
 hope," said her uncle. " Come, we will 
 both be serious," added he, sitting down 
 at the table ; and drawing Lucy towards 
 him, he seated her on half his chair, put 
 one arm round her, and leaned his other 
 on the table, in an attitude of attention. 
 "Now Harry, explain your hygrometer, 
 and spare the remains of that poor pen." 
 
 " But Lucy looks tired," said Harry. 
 " Have you a mind to see the hygrome- 
 ter, or not ? " 
 
 " I have a little mind," said Lucy ; " that 
 is, I have a great mind to please you, 
 brother, only we need not go through 
 them all," said she, as he placed the plates 
 before her. 
 
 " No, do not be frightened," said Harry ; 
 " I am not going to show them all to you ; 
 I am going to show you only the very 
 best." 
 
 "Stay," said his uncle, putting his hand 
 
69 
 
 over tbe engraving to which Harry was 
 pointing. " Do not show her that, show 
 her any other, she must not yet see that." 
 
 "Why not? I wonder why ! " said Lucy. 
 
 " I have a reason," said her uncle. 
 " But never mind or think about that 
 which I hide under my hand, my dear; 
 attend to what your brother is going to 
 show you." 
 
 "Which shall I show her, uncle?" said 
 Harry ; " shall I show her De Luc's ivory 
 or whalebone hygrometer?" 
 
 " The whalebone, for that is the most 
 simple, I think," replied his uncle. 
 
 Harry, with the article Hygrometer be- 
 fore him, began : — 
 
 " Look here, Lucy, do you see little ^, 
 and little b ; this represents a small thin 
 bit of whalebone, cut across the grain; you 
 know what is meant by the grain of the 
 whalebone ; but do you see little a and 
 little^?" 
 
 No ; Lucy, instead of looking at little 
 a, b, was peeping at the back of the 
 page, and reading something about a little 
 
70 
 
 man, and a little woman, and a weather 
 glass. 
 
 " Here is something very entertaining, 
 brother," said she, "I must read it to you. 
 
 '' In the Dutch toys called weather glasses, 
 one end of the index supports a small 
 image of a man, and the other of a woman. 
 The former appears, or is brought out, in 
 bad weather ; the latter in fair weather." 
 
 " I remember," said Lucy, " that once, 
 at our widow Green's farm, I saw a wea- 
 ther glass of this sort; but I was not then 
 wise enough to know that it was called 
 an hygrometer." 
 
 " There is no great wisdom in know- 
 ing that name^' said her uncle. 
 
 ^' I wish you would show me how to 
 make this thing, brother," said Lucy ; " that 
 would be something indeed." 
 
 " I can," answered Harry, " and I will 
 another day, Lucy ; but I can show you 
 but one thing at a time. Now pray mind 
 what you are about, because I have other 
 things to do." 
 
 " Yes, Lucy, consider your brother's 
 
71 
 
 time," said her uncle ; " he wants to go 
 to his own affairs ; pray mind what you 
 are about." 
 
 "I will, I will indeed, uncle; I will 
 Harry," cried Lucy. 
 
 Harry began again with, 
 
 "Little Z> is a thin piece of whale- 
 bone, cut across the grain." He was 
 going on with his explanation, and went 
 through c, d, and e, confident that Lucy 
 was following him; but by that time he 
 heard the sound of an ill-suppressed laugh, 
 and, looking up, he saw Lucy with both 
 her hands pressed against her mouth, to 
 prevent her laughter from bursting forth. 
 
 " What can you be laughing at, Lucy?" 
 said he. 
 
 " Only at the odd figures of the little 
 old man and woman, in the weather glass, 
 which I never can think of without laugh- 
 ing : the woman w^ith her cap and red 
 ribbons all awry, and her eyes crooked 
 too, and her arm a-kimbo, and her pipe in 
 her mouth, doubled back against her snub 
 
72 
 
 nose, flattening it this way. Look Harry, 
 look uncle ! " 
 
 Her uncle, instead of joining in Lucy's 
 merriment, said gravely, that she was wrong 
 to waste her brother's time, and that he 
 was afraid she would never learn any thing 
 of science, if she were not more attentive. 
 
 Her mother came into the room while 
 her uncle was speaking, and Lucy looked 
 ashamed and mortified : writhing as if with 
 bodily pain, she said, "I did attend as 
 long as ever I could, but I could not any 
 longer, I was so shockingly tired." 
 
 " It was my fault," said Harry ; " I 
 kept you too long, and told you too much 
 at a time ; but I did that, because you told 
 me you wanted to get on, and to learn all 
 I had learned as quickly as possible." 
 
 " That is true," said Lucy; " I was 
 wrong there, I confess." 
 
 " And since we are all confessing," said 
 her uncle, '^ I suppose I should confess I 
 was wrong in praising you, Lucy, for re- 
 peating those lines." 
 
73 
 
 ** Yes, indeed, my dear uncle, I think 
 you were,'' said Lucy ; " for that encou- 
 raged me to repeat more, though I knew 
 my brother did not like that I should." 
 
 ** I was wrong, I suppose, not to like 
 it," said Harry; "but I will try to like 
 poetry better." 
 
 " And I will not repeat it at the wrong 
 time," said Lucy. " But Harry, another 
 day, you must not tell me such a quan- 
 tity, and keep me so long at it" 
 
 *^ I will not," said Harry ; " I know it 
 was wrong ; but I was so eager and happy 
 myself. And besides, you said you wanted 
 to get on fast." 
 
 " Well, but 1 will be content to go a 
 little slower, and not to do so much at 
 once." 
 
 *^ Right, my dear Lucy," said her uncle ; 
 " the only way to be quick at last, in 
 science at least, is to be content to go 
 slowly at first." 
 
 "You may remember, Lucy," said her 
 mother, " that was the way you began in 
 arithmetic; you used to tell me every day, 
 
 VOL. I. E 
 
74 
 
 * mamma, this is very slow work ;' but 
 now you can go on with it quickly." 
 
 " A great deal more quickly than I can, 
 I am sure," said Harry. 
 
 " Well Harry, I will be as slow as you 
 please in scientific things," said Lucy. 
 
 " And I will never tire you again so 
 sadly," said Harry, " if I can help it." 
 
 "I will never be tired again," said Lucy, 
 " if I can help it." 
 
 '^ If I can help it," repeated their mo- 
 ther, " is a wise and safe addition." 
 
 The next day, Harry and Lucy, having 
 finished their morning's business, were 
 anxious to return to the hygrometer, and 
 to try their resolution of mutual forbear- 
 ance. But they had taken no exercise 
 this day. Their uncle advised them to 
 run out to their gardens, and divert them- 
 selves for an hour or two. 
 
 " Remember," said he, " iEsop's good 
 old fable, and excellent principle of un- 
 bending the bow." 
 
T 
 J 
 
 75 
 
 " Yes," said Lucy, " the strings of mam- 
 ma's harp never crack when she remem- 
 bers to let them down, to loosen them in 
 time,'' 
 
 After having: refreshed themselves b\ 
 an hour of that voluntary hard bodily 
 work, which children of all ao:es ao-ree 
 to call play, and after they had rested and 
 cooled themselves, while they gathered a 
 basket full of their own straw^berries, of 
 which of course they ate a proper pro- 
 portion to determine whether they were or 
 were not ripe, they returned to the house, 
 intending to offer these their first straw- 
 berries to their uncle. But not in the 
 library, nor in the breakfast room, ^'nor 
 up the lawn, nor at the w^ood was he ;" 
 and it was concluded, that he was gone 
 home to his own house, which was about 
 a quarter of a mile's walk from theirs. 
 
 " We had better run after him with our 
 basket," said Lucy. 
 
 " No, he will come back before dinner, 
 I am sure," said Harry; ^'for mamma said 
 he was to dine here, and there is his great 
 
 E 2 
 
76 
 
 coat still in the hall. Now let us go to the 
 hygrometer." 
 
 Lucy set down her basket of straw- 
 berries at the farthest end of the room, 
 lest the smell should disturb her, and 
 Harry took down and opened his large 
 volume. But their hands were in no con- 
 dition to touch delicate engravings: his 
 were brown with garden mould, and hers 
 pink with the juice of strawberries. The 
 dressing bell had rung, and their mother 
 strongly advised their dressing before they 
 began to read. 
 
 This advice, to drxss firsts and then you 
 are ready to do whatever you 'please afters- 
 wards^ so often given by age to youth, 
 and so seldom taken, or well taken, was 
 in this instance acted upon instantly, with- 
 out one murmur of the tongue, or one 
 writhing of the body. 
 
 In all the self-complacency and safety 
 of being ready half an hour before dinner 
 time, they met again in the library, where 
 they found their uncle. 
 
 ^'Oh! uncle, I am glad you are here/^ 
 
77 
 
 cried Lucy : and after presenting to him 
 their strawberries, they went to their book. 
 
 Harry asked whether he should go on 
 with old whakhojie or not? 
 
 " Go on with old whalebone," said his 
 uncle. " Lucy should not leave that 
 without understandino^ it: not that it siof- 
 nifies whether she understands that parti- 
 cular thing or not, but this will be a trial 
 of her attention." 
 
 " I w^ll be very attentive," said Lucy. 
 But observing that her uncle placed 
 his arm as before, so as to cover one of 
 the hygrometers in the engraving, her cu- 
 riosity a little disturbed her. Her uncle 
 remarking the turn of her eye, said, 
 
 '' I advise you, Lucy, to repress your 
 curiosity. Do not think of what is under 
 my elbow, but of what 3'Our brother is 
 showing you." 
 
 Lucy repressed her curiosity, and com- 
 manded her attention. Harry explained 
 slowly, and she followed step by step 
 patiently, undisturbed by the fear of being 
 too slow, or the hope of showing that slie 
 
78 
 
 was very quick ; and without one glance 
 at her uncle's arm, or one thought of 
 what might be his reason for keeping it 
 in that position, she went regularly through 
 the a, h^ c, r/, of De Luc's whalebone hy- 
 grometer, and understood it to her own, 
 and to her brother's complete satisfaction. 
 Her uncle was, as he said, glad to per- 
 ceive that Lucy had so far kept her resolu- 
 tion : and he told her, that if she steadily 
 went on in the same manner, she would 
 find it in time easy to do what she now 
 felt so difficult, to fix her attention. 
 
 " And now," said he, removing his arm 
 from the print ; '* you shall know my 
 reason for covering this, and I will show 
 you what I went home for." 
 
 He took from his pocket, and placed 
 between Harry and Lucy, a small cylin- 
 drical case, of about three inches high, 
 covered with morocco leather. 
 
 '-' It is like the case of mamma's opera 
 glass," cried Lucy. " Is there an opera 
 glass in it?" 
 
 ^' No ;" Harry smiled, for he knew what 
 
79 
 
 was in it immediately : Le knew that it 
 was his favourite hygrometer. His uncle 
 took it out of the case, and placed it be- 
 side the engraving which he had covered 
 with his arm, telling Lucy, that he had 
 wished only to delay showing her the 
 engraving, till she could compare it with 
 the original, which he had walked home 
 to bring for them. It was so simple, that 
 upon looking at it, and examining the 
 plate, Lucy understood it directly. It is 
 composed of a kind of Indian grass, 
 which, like the beard of the Arabian and 
 of the English oat, twists and untwists 
 with dryness or moisture, but in a much 
 greater degree, making, it is said, from 
 ten to sixteen revolutions, from the ex- 
 treme of moisture to the extreme of dry- 
 ness. Harry told Lucy, that in the 
 description which he had read of this 
 hygrometer, it is said, that it shows, more 
 easily and quickly than any other, the 
 changes of moisture in the atmosphere. 
 
 '' It is so sensible," continued Harry, 
 " as to be affected by the shutting and 
 
80 
 
 opening of a door or window, and is 
 sure to feel the approach of any person, 
 and to indicate it by the motion of its 
 hands.'' 
 
 " Let us try now, if it will indicate my 
 approach," said Lucy. 
 
 As she approached, the hands began 
 to move ; and when, as her brother bid 
 her, she took it up and held it nearer to 
 her, the motion increased ; and when, as 
 he desired, she breathed through the holes 
 in the sides, one hand, affected by her 
 breath, seemed to fly round the circle, 
 while the other numbered the revolutions. 
 Lucy was pleased full as much even as 
 her brother could expect. She stood 
 watching its quick variations as she 
 breathed upon it, or withdrew her breath. 
 
 " But, brother," said she, " did not 
 you tell me that this has been but lately 
 invented. How comes that? Why did 
 not people think of it before ? Was not 
 the grass always there, wherever this was 
 found — in India?" 
 
 "I suppose it was," said Harry; "but 
 
81 
 
 nobody had observed it. AW I know 
 about it is, that in Rees's Cyclopedia, it 
 says, that this kind of grass was disco- 
 vered in India about the year 1800, I 
 think, was not it uncle? by Captain 
 Kater, who was employed in making 
 some survey, or some observations, and 
 who wanted a very accurate hygrometer 
 to measure the smallest quantities of 
 moisture ; and he tried this grass, and 
 found it succeed, and found that it lasts 
 better and is more sensible than the Eno- 
 lish oat.'' 
 
 " Accurately remembered, Harry,'' said 
 his uncle; "but pray does the Cyclopedia 
 tell you how it happened that Captain 
 Kater took notice of this grass ? " 
 
 " No, uncle," said Harry ; *' how was 
 
 itr' 
 
 " He told a friend of mine, that one 
 evenino^, as he was walkino^ without boots 
 in that grass, he was annoyed by its fre- 
 quent catching in his stockings; and when 
 he took them off at night, he found them 
 full of this grass, which had twisted itself 
 
 E 5 
 
82 
 
 into them. When he pulled it out, he 
 observed it particularly. Then his atten- 
 tion being fixed, he remarked the sensi- 
 bility of this grass to moisture, and he 
 thought of using it for his scientific pur- 
 poses, as an hygrometer." 
 
 "' How very lucky, that it plagued him 
 that day," said Lucy, " by sticking in his 
 stockings." 
 
 " How well it was, that he observed its 
 properties, when he took it out," said 
 Harry, " and that he thought of applying 
 it to some good use. I am afraid I 
 should have thrown it away without ob- 
 serving it : at night, particularly, I might 
 have been sleepy and tired ; and then, 
 uncle, the world would never have had 
 this nice little convenient instrument." 
 
 '' Would you, Harry, and would you, 
 Lucy," said their uncle, "like to have this 
 nice little convenient instrument for your 
 own?" 
 
 Their eyes brightening with pleasure, 
 they answered that they should like it 
 very much. 
 
83 
 
 " Then it is yours, my dears," said their 
 uncle. " I give it you in the hope that it 
 will teach you accuracy and patience." 
 
 They said that they would try to keep 
 a register of it regularly, but Lucy added, 
 that if it was only to teach her patience, 
 she should not like it so well as if she 
 thought it would be also of some use to 
 her uncle, or for some other purpose. 
 
 Her uncle assured her, that it would 
 be useful to him ; he said, that he had 
 two friends, one living in Ireland, the 
 other in America ; they wished to keep 
 a register of the damp or dryness of the 
 atmosphere in those countries, to be com- 
 pared with England. 
 
 '^ Then," cried Lucy, " we will keep 
 the register for England with pleasure : 
 that will be something grand, and worth 
 
 while." 
 
 '^ But," said her uncle, " if you at- 
 tempt this, it must be done with ac- 
 curacy, or it will be of no use. Re- 
 member, I tell you, it will be a trial of 
 
84 
 
 your patience. Do not begin it unless 
 you think you can keep it regularly for 
 six months." 
 
 " Half a year ! " said Lucy, " that is a 
 very long time." Harry, however, was 
 not afraid to undertake it; because he 
 had tried, and had kept a register of a 
 barometer for a whole year. He said 
 his register was not neat, though it was 
 accurate ; his figures were too large, and 
 straggling often out of their proper co- 
 lumns ; but now he could use Lucy as 
 his secretary, and she could make nice 
 even figures. 
 
 Their uncle wrote for them some neces- 
 sary directions. He said, that it would 
 be requisite to do, every time they re- 
 gistered their hygrometer, a sum in divi- 
 sion of a certain large number of figures. 
 This did not alarm Lucy, for she was 
 expert in division, and she rejoiced that 
 she should be able to do this sum readily 
 for her brother; and that she should be 
 wanted and useful every day, or may be 
 
85 
 
 twice a day. They were eager to show 
 their hygrometer to their father; but he 
 had gone from home for a few days. 
 
 It was settled, that the first thing they 
 .should do every morning of their lives 
 must be, to examine and write down their 
 hygrometer registry. Harry was always 
 to 7xad off^ and Lucy to write down. 
 
 Whoever has tried to keep a daily re- 
 gister, or to do any thing regularly every 
 day, and at a certain hour, must know, 
 that it is not a very easy task ; and where 
 two persons are concerned, the difficulty 
 is more than doubled, with the chances 
 of one or the other failing in punctuality, 
 and quarrelling about whose fault it might 
 be. Harry and Lucy, therefore, by the 
 experienced and the candid, will be al- 
 lowed some credit for keeping their re- 
 gister accurately every day for a month, 
 without having complained of each other. 
 Lucy repeated, that she was very glad it 
 was to be of some great use to her uncle, 
 at the end of the time ; for that, without 
 this motive, and the pleasure of helping 
 
86 
 
 her brother, and of making nice figures 
 for him, she confessed, that she should not 
 have patience to go on with it. 
 
 " Thank you again and again, mamma, 
 for allowing me to learn with Harry as I 
 used to do. I am much happier already. 
 But, mamma, if I knew ever so much, if 
 Harry was not fond of me, and I of him, 
 we could not be really happy. Could we, 
 do you think, mamma?" 
 
 " In truth, my dear child, I do not think 
 you could," said her mother. 
 
 '' I am sure, quite sure, we could not," 
 continued Lucy. " Suppose I knew all 
 the histories, and all the poems, and all 
 the stories in the whole world, and that I 
 could draw, and play on the piano-forte, 
 and dance better than any body in the 
 universe, I am sure, mother, I could never 
 be happy unless I loved my brother, and 
 he loved me. Nor could he be happy, 
 even if he knew all the '^ Scientific Dia- 
 logues," and all the mechanics, and hy- 
 drostatics, and optics — 
 
 '' But, oh ! " cried Lucy, interrupting 
 
87 
 
 herself in this enumeration of the ics, 
 '* there is papa come home ! I could not 
 think, mamma, what made you start up so 
 quickly in the middle of my optics.'' 
 
 Lucy had too much discretion to produce 
 their hygrometer the very moment her fa- 
 ther came home ; she waited till he had 
 finished what he was saying to her mo- 
 ther ; comprehending that this might be 
 of more consequence to him, and more 
 interesting, than even their new posses- 
 sion, and their new arrangements. As 
 soon, however, as he had leisure to attend 
 to her, when he turned to Lucy, and hold- 
 ing out his hand to her said, " Have you 
 any thing new to tell me, my little girl 1 '" 
 she answered eagerly, " Yes, papa, a great 
 deal !" He made room for her on one side 
 of him, and for Harry on the other, and 
 then they showed him their hygrometer ; 
 and Lucy told him how much she wished 
 to understand what her brother had been 
 learning the preceding years ; and she told 
 
88 
 
 him of Harry's intention to bring her up to 
 him in science. She promising to go as 
 slowly, and he as fast as he could, and to 
 tire her as little as possible. Her father 
 was glad that Harry had learned by his 
 first attempt, that he should not, on any 
 subject, tell all he knew to his sister at 
 once, nor expect that she could at once 
 take as great an interest as he did, on sub- 
 jects of which she was ignorant ; particu- 
 larly when she had to endure all the labour 
 and mortification, which a beginner must 
 go through, before learning any new 
 science can be easy or entertaining. His 
 father advised Harry not to attempt to 
 describe all the small parts and detail of 
 machines, not to go over all the a b cs 
 of descriptions in engravings, which, how- 
 ever requisite for those who are to make 
 them, would be unnecessary to Lucy. He 
 advised Harry to try to give his sister a 
 clear knowledge of the principles of some 
 of the most useful inventions and dis- 
 coveries. He promised to assist when- 
 ever he came to any difficulty, but he de- 
 
89 
 
 sired him to try first how he could go on 
 by himself, in explaining to his sister. 
 And he repeated to Lucy what her mo- 
 ther and uncle had said to her about at- 
 tention. He told her, that whenever he 
 had attempted lately to teach her, he had 
 observed that she did not attend as well 
 as formerly. 
 
 " I know it, papa; I try all lean, but I 
 cannot. I do not know how it is, I can- 
 not," said Lucy ; *^ every word that is said 
 seems, as it were, to awaken some other 
 words; and every thing I see and hear 
 makes me recollect somethino: else, and 
 my thoughts are flying off backwards and 
 forwards, and sideways and every way, 
 while Harry's can go on straight forward, 
 always thinking of what he is about, or of 
 the very thing that is said to him. I used 
 to be able to do the same," said Lucy, 
 sighing. 
 
 ^^ Sigh no more, Lucy," said her father, 
 smiling. '^ No great harm is done. Your 
 habits of attention have been spoiled, and 
 your power of attending is consequently 
 
90 
 
 diminished ; but with your own good will 
 and good sense we shall soon set all this 
 to rights again. Your perceiving and re- 
 flecting upon what passes in your own 
 mind, will assist you very much." 
 
 " Papa," said Lucy, " I know how it all 
 happened. Aunt Pierrepoint did not think 
 it signified much whether I attended strictly, 
 as my uncle says, or not. She said I was 
 quick enough. And I will tell you, papa, 
 what made a great impression upon m«. 
 Once I heard a gentleman talking about 
 genius ; and he said of me, that he won- 
 dered how I learned every thing with so 
 little attention ; that I was always looking 
 about and listening to all that people said, 
 and yet that I was so quick. I am ashamed, 
 papa, to tell you any more," said Lucy, 
 stopping. 
 
 *' You have said quite enough, my dear 
 little girl, to prove to me that you are not 
 quite a goose. As long as any person is 
 ashamed of being flattered, there is hope 
 that they will learn to despise and dislike 
 flattery. I give up only those who get 
 
91 
 
 over the pain of the shame, and who then 
 like it shamelessly, and swallow down more 
 and more of it, till at last they end by be- 
 ing fools to flattery, without knowing their 
 wretched state." 
 
 '^ I hope I shall never be in that wretched 
 state, mamma," said Lucy, with a look of 
 much apprehension ; *^ Harry, will you take 
 care of me ? " 
 
 " And of myself," said Harry. 
 
 *' Well, now to business," said their 
 father. " What do you wish to learn 
 first, Lucy?" 
 
 She said that she wished to be made per- 
 fectly acquainted with the air pump, be- 
 cause Harry had reproached her with not 
 having understood that fine poetic de- 
 scription of it, which she had learned by 
 heart, and repeated. He said, that to be 
 sure he could easily make her understand 
 his uncle's air pump, because she already 
 knew the principle of a common water 
 pump. 
 
 "Do I?" said Lucy, smiling; " I did 
 not know that I knew it ;" and here she 
 
92 
 
 again thought of the man who had talked 
 prose all his life, without knowing it; but 
 she refrained from making an allusion to 
 him, though it was ready on her lips. 
 Harry recalled to her mind the experi- 
 ments which their father had shown them 
 two years ago. 
 
 " Do not you remember," $aid he, " the 
 experiment he showed us, with a roll of 
 tape that was put under a wine glass, 
 which was turned down, and plunged into 
 a bason of water ; and then the tape was 
 pulled out, and unrolled by degrees?'' 
 
 Lucy remembered all this. 
 
 '' And what happened," said Harry, 
 " when the tape was pulled from under the 
 glass ? " 
 
 Lucy answered, " That the water rose 
 in the glass." 
 
 '^ And why ?" said Harry. 
 
 "Because, when the tape was taken out, 
 there was left in its place a vacancy, a 
 vacuum you call it ; then the water which 
 was in the bason rose into that vacant 
 place." 
 
93 
 
 '* And why did it rise ?" pursued Harry. 
 
 *' Because it was pressed by the weight 
 of the air, pressing on all the water in the 
 basin, and it was forced up into the glass 
 where there was no air, nothing to pre- 
 vent or resist it." 
 
 " Very well ; now I am satisfied," said 
 Harry. " You remember it clearly." 
 
 " Because I understood it clearly at th^ 
 time it was first shown to me," said Lucy ; 
 *' my father was so patient, and explained 
 it to me so slowly and clearly." 
 
 " Well," said Harry, *^ you have proved 
 to me that you understand the first prin- 
 ciple on which pumps are made, for all 
 depends on making a vacuum, into which 
 the water rises, or is raised. The first 
 thing to be done is to make a vacuum. 
 Now, Lucy, in a common pump, such 
 as there is in the yard for pumping up 
 water, where do you think the vacuum 
 must be before the water can rise ? " 
 
 Lucy said, she supposed that it must be 
 in the inside of the body or tube of the 
 pump. 
 
94 
 
 " Yes, we call it the bore,'' said Harry. 
 " Now tell me how you would make a 
 vacuum within it." 
 
 " Oh ! my dear Harry, that is too diffi- 
 cult a question for me," said Lucy. " How 
 can I tell how to make a vacuum in the 
 b(yre, as you call it, of a great pump ? " 
 
 "Where is the difficulty?" said Harry. 
 '' Do not be frightened by the word bore ; 
 or, if you are alarmed by the idea of a great 
 pump, suppose a little one, as small as you 
 please ; as small, suppose, as the glass tube 
 of the barometer." 
 
 '^ That would be easy to suppose ; but 
 could there be so small a pump?" said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " To be sure, as well as of the largest 
 size, only it would raise less water. But 
 now go on straight forward, Lucy my 
 dear ; do not ask me any of your starting 
 off questions. You must let me ask you 
 questions, and you are to answer ? " 
 
 " If I can," said Lucy. 
 
 " You can, I assure yon, my dear," said 
 Harry, in his most persuasive tone, " if you 
 
95 
 
 will only believe that you can, and keep 
 steady. I ask you how you would make a 
 vacuum in this tube?" 
 
 '^ Let me consider — let me recollect. 
 What did my father do when he made a 
 vacuum in the wine glass ? " said Lucy to 
 herself. " He put in a roll of tape, which 
 filled up the whole glass, and then drew 
 it out, little by little, so as not to let any 
 air into the glass, while he was pulling it 
 out again. But I cannot get a roll of tape 
 into the small tube," said Lucy. 
 
 " No, not a roll of tape/' said Harry ; 
 ''but if you consider what was the pur- 
 pose or use of putting the roll of tape into 
 the glass, and drawing it out again, you 
 will perceive, that putting in and drawing 
 out any thing else in the same manner 
 would do as well." 
 
 " The purpose was, first to force the 
 air that was in the glass out of it," said 
 Lucy, " and to prevent any more after- 
 wards from getting into the place which 
 the tape took up, and which remained va- 
 
96 
 
 cant as it was drawn out, leaving a vacuum 
 at last." 
 
 ** Now you are coming on very well, 
 Lucy," said Harry. 
 
 ** If I can put in any thing of any sort 
 into the little tube, which forces the air 
 out, and then if I could keep the air out, 
 there would be a vacuum for you, Harry." 
 
 " Very well, you will now quite under- 
 stand a pump, and you will soon know 
 how to use it, Lucy." 
 
 " As to that," said Lucy, " I know how 
 to pump already, only I am not strong 
 enough." 
 
 *' Stay! stay! Lucy; knowing how to 
 pull a handle up and down^ which I sup- 
 pose is all you mean, is not understanding 
 what I mean by knowing what pumping 
 is, or how it is done.** 
 
 *' I have seen men and maids often 
 pumping at the pump in the yard," said 
 Lucy. 
 
 "What happens when they pump?" said 
 Harry. 
 
97 
 
 *' The water comes out of the spout, after 
 they have pumped a little while," said Lucy. 
 
 " What do you mean by pumping?" 
 persisted Harry. 
 
 " I cannot tell you exactly, Harry, be- 
 cause I never saw the inside of the pump. 
 I only know that they move the handle up 
 and down; and I believe there is some- 
 thing fastened to it, which I suppose 
 brings up the water ; but I do not know 
 how exactly." 
 
 " I believe not indeed," said Harry ; 
 '^ then you see, Mrs. Quick-Quick, you 
 did not understand what I meant by pump- 
 ing. Now come with me, and I will 
 show you in my room the nice glass pump 
 which my father made for me. You can- 
 not see into the inside of the pump in the 
 yard, but when once you have seen my 
 glass pump you will understand the inside 
 of all others." 
 
 He showed her in the first place a glass 
 tube, in which there was a spout near the 
 top. The tube was open at the top, and 
 at the bottom there was a little door or 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
98 . 
 
 valve, which opened upwards only : he 
 poured water into this tube, to shovv her, 
 that the water would rest upon this valve, 
 without its letting any of it through : he 
 then emptied out the water. " Now," said 
 he, " you know there is nothing but air 
 in this tube. Look at this, which is called 
 the piston of a pump." The piston was 
 a cylinder, which fitted tight into the 
 tube ; at the top of it there was a valve 
 like that at the bottom of the tube, which 
 also opened one way, and that was up- 
 wards. Harry pushed it up several times 
 with his finger, to show Lucy that it 
 opened easily, and he made her feel that it 
 did so. He then put the tube into a tub 
 of water, the tube resting on two blocks of 
 wood, which raised it from the bottom of 
 the tub, so that there was room for the 
 water to flow in through the lowest valve. 
 Lucy, as he desired, held the glass tube 
 upright, while he pushed down the piston, 
 to which there was a long handle. 
 
 " Now, Lucy, what happens within - 
 side of the tube?" said Harry. 
 
99 
 
 "Nothing that I know of," said she, 
 " but that you have pressed the air in the 
 tube closer together." 
 
 ^' Very true ; do you see the valve at 
 the bottom? Is it shut or open?" 
 
 Lucy said it was shut. 
 
 " And what keeps it shut ?" 
 
 " The air that you are pressing down 
 upon it," said Lucy. 
 
 He pressed the piston down farther. 
 
 " Now look again," said he, " and tell 
 me what happens ?" 
 
 '^ I see the little door at the top of the 
 piston open," said she. 
 
 Harry asked her what she thought had 
 opened it. 
 
 " The air," said she, ^^ underneath it, 
 which I suppose you could not compress 
 any more, and which has forced its way 
 up. 
 
 He now drew up the piston, and again 
 asked what happened. Lucy saw the 
 valve at the top of the piston shut, and she 
 saw the water rush throusrh the valve at 
 the bottom of the glass pump, and rise in 
 
 F 2 
 
100 
 
 its tube. And when Harry again plunged 
 down the piston, the water came through 
 the valve in the piston, and when he drew 
 it up again it carried up all the water to 
 the top of the tube, where it flowed out 
 of the spout. 
 
 "Just as it does in the great real pump," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " And now you do know what I mean 
 by pumping," said Harry. 
 
 He pumped on for some time, and then 
 let her take the handle, and work for her- 
 self. He questioned her, and made her 
 repeat her explanation, till he was satis- 
 fied, and she was satisfied, that she clearly 
 understood, that the thing to be done in 
 pumping, and by pumping, is to force the 
 air out of a certain space, to produce a va- 
 cancy or vacuum, into which the ^^ter 
 rushes and rises ; " Or rather," said Harry, 
 " to speak more accurately, is pressed and 
 supported by the surrounding air and 
 water. Perhaps I ought to tell you, that 
 there is no perfect vacuum. But I will not 
 be too exact with you at first, lest I should 
 
101 
 
 tire you. Therefore I will not tell you all 
 the differences between a lifting pump, 
 and a sucking pump, and a forcing pump ; 
 besides, I am not sure that I know them 
 all myself. I w^ill not tell you even about 
 water always finding its own level." 
 
 " I am very much obliged to you," said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " Nor will I tell you," continued Harry, 
 " about the weight of the column of water, 
 which a certain quantity of air can sus- 
 tain." 
 
 '' I think I do know something about 
 that," said Lucy ; '' or I did know it once. 
 However, thank you for not telling me too 
 much at a time, especially about all the 
 different pumps you talked of. Leave my 
 head quite clear with the vacuum. That 
 I understand now, and the use which is 
 made of it ; and I understand all that hap- 
 pens when the piston of the pump is pulled 
 up and pushed down." 
 
 ^' And now that you know," said Harry, 
 " what pumping is, I will ask mamma to 
 let us go to the great pump in the yard, 
 
102 
 
 that you may see, Lucy, the same sort of 
 thing in large, that you have seen in 
 small." 
 
 Their mother went with them to look at 
 the pump in the yard. The handle was 
 so high, that Harry could not well manage 
 to use it ; but his mother called for one of 
 the servants, who pumped for them. 
 
 The servant filled a tub with the water, 
 which he had pumped up ; and, as he 
 lifted it to carry it away, he said, that he 
 and all the servants in the house were very 
 glad, that the pump, which had been out 
 of order, was now well repaired, because 
 it had been great labour to them to go to 
 the windlass-well in the garden for water, 
 whenever it was wanted, and to bring 
 heavy tubs of it many times a-day. This 
 observation made Lucy the more sensible, 
 as she said, of the great convenience of a 
 pump. 
 
 " This is a really and truly useful ma- 
 chine," continued she ; " useful to great, 
 great numbers of people, for the com- 
 monest business, that must be done every 
 
103 
 
 day, and almost every hour ; and it is as 
 easy for ignorant people to use, as for the 
 most learned — what an excellent contri- 
 vance ! How happy the man must have 
 been who made the first pump, when he 
 found it would do, and felt the water com- 
 ing, and saw it pouring out at the spout !" 
 
 *' Delightful ! " said Harry. 
 
 "Now, Harry, my dear, tell me some- 
 thing about the air pump." 
 
 '^ No, no, my dear, that would be too 
 much," said Harry, looking very prudent. 
 " One pump a-day is enough for you, I 
 will keep the air pump till to-morrow." 
 
 After all this wisdom, what did they do 
 next? How did Harry and Lucy spend 
 the remainder of this morning, two whole 
 hours? 
 
 If we tell, we shall not be believed, ex- 
 cept by those who are themselves children, 
 or by those who know children right well, 
 and their sudden falls from the heiofhts of 
 wisdom to the depths of folly. 
 
 Harry and Lucy spent all that remained 
 of this morning in pumping up, through 
 
104 
 
 the little glass pump, the water of a puddle 
 in Harry's garden. They could have ladled 
 it all out in three minutes, and two mo- 
 derate sized tubs would have held it, and 
 have carried it all away. But this would 
 have been too obvious, too easy a way of 
 going to work. It must all pass through 
 the glass pump : and so they worked on 
 till their backs ached, and till the dirty pud- 
 dle water had so soaked into the leather of 
 the piston, and so clogged the valve with 
 mud, that it would move no more. 
 
 During this pumping and draining of 
 the puddle, many misadventures befel 
 Harry's trowsers and Lucy's clean frock — 
 clean no more ! It may be recorded for 
 the advantage of little washerwomen, who, 
 with hands unskilled, may unadvisedly 
 attempt to wash out fresh spots, that the 
 more Lucy tried to get rid of hers, the 
 more they appeared. What seemed quite 
 out while it was wet, came in again as 
 soon as it dried. And the spots spread 
 into blotches, with obstinate edges of yel- 
 low; so that altogether the frock, instead 
 
105 
 
 of looking better for these operations, was 
 worse than ever ! 
 
 Before it was half dry — oh, how un- 
 lucky ! — before it had half dried, after dip 
 and scrub the fifth, the sound of carriage- 
 wheels was heard — morning visitors! 
 Their garden was full in sight of the 
 house. Up jumped Harry, upon what he 
 called his throne, a heap of stones, from 
 whence he had a full view of the carri- 
 age. It was one he had never seen before. 
 Lucy clambered after him, to share the 
 exalted view from his throne, and to assist 
 his judgment with her eyes and her imagi- 
 nation. A lady was getting out of the 
 carriage. Lucy did not know who it was, 
 she confessed, but she imagined that it 
 must be a certain Mrs. Hanbury, who 
 owed her mother a visit. 
 
 ^' I am sure it is Mrs. Hanbury, and I 
 dare say that her daughter is with her; 
 therefore I will not go in, for Miss Han- 
 bury is always very fine, and I should not 
 like that she should see me in this frock 
 in this sad condition. And oh! Harry, 
 
 f5 
 
106 
 
 they must not see you in those trowsers. 
 I will show you how Mrs. Hanbury and 
 Miss Hanbury would look at us. We will 
 not go in." 
 
 " Go in! upon no account/' said Harry. 
 "As to my trowsers, I do not care what 
 your fine Miss Hanbury or Mrs. Hanbury 
 think, or how they look at them, or at me; 
 but I hate going into a room where there 
 are strangers." 
 
 Harry observed, however, that notwith- 
 standing Lucy's certainty, that the visitors 
 were Mrs. and Miss Hanbury, no girl got 
 out of the carriage, and there was a gentle- 
 man. 
 
 " How can that be?" said Lucy, "for 
 there is no Mr. Hanbury. Let them be 
 who they may, we will not go in," re- 
 peated she. 
 
 To this Harry heartily assented. He 
 disliked morning visitors particularly. 
 
 '' So do I ; so does every body,'* said 
 Lucy. " I hope they will not see us 
 from the house. I hope mamma will not 
 send for us. Harry, we had better sit up 
 
107 
 
 in your observatory, in the great sycamore 
 tree." 
 
 " Come up then this instant,"' cried 
 Harry. '' Give me your hand, and I will 
 pull you up.'' 
 
 In Harry's observatory, in the great syca- 
 more tree, they both sat snugly for some 
 time, till he saw through the branches 
 some people standing at the drawing-room 
 window. That they might not be seen by 
 these people, Harry advised leaving the 
 observatory, and removing a step higher, 
 into what he called his dark attics, where 
 the branches were so thick, that he was 
 sure no morning visitors could see them, 
 or think of looking for them ; he had sat 
 there many a time, he said, while ladies 
 had passed under the tree chattering, with- 
 out ever spying him. Scarcely, however, 
 had they mounted, and safely lodged them- 
 selves in the attics, which, to say the 
 truth, were ill able to hold two lodgers at 
 a time, when Harry exclaimed, 
 
 '' It is all over with us ! there is mam- 
 ma herself at the window, beckoning to us."' 
 
108 
 
 " But she cannot see us," said Lucy. 
 
 " Certainly not," said Harry, " unless 
 she saw my white trowsers, when I was 
 clambering up here into the attics." 
 
 •' White trowsers ! Oh no, I am sure 
 she did not," said Lucy. 
 
 ^' But there she is," said Harry, " wav- 
 ing her handkerchief, Lucy." 
 
 ^' Do not go, do not go in; for now I 
 have a green streak worse than all the 
 rest," said Lucy ; "I am sure mamma 
 does not see us, and I dare say she does not 
 want us really herself, but perhaps Mrs. 
 Hanbury asked for me, and mamma just 
 beckoned." 
 
 The signal was repeated at intervals, 
 two or three times. Lucy had some doubts, 
 but the fear of Mrs. Hanbury 's seeing her 
 dirty gown prevailed. The handkerchief 
 ceased to wave, and they remained in 
 their tree nearly an hour, a much longer 
 time than they had expected. Harry had 
 been resolute from the first, and had no 
 waverings during this hour. As he sat 
 quite at ease in his tree, he said, " Now 
 
109 
 
 is a good time to think of the puzzle my 
 uncle gave me, about a three gallon, a 
 five gallon, and an eight gallon vesel." 
 Lucy interrupted him several times, by 
 scrambling up and down to see if the car- 
 riage vras gone, or whether mamma waved 
 her handkerchief again. At length, hav- 
 ing succeeded in solving his problem, he 
 held her fast by the gown, insisting upon 
 her sitting still and thinking of it, which, 
 as he assured her, would make the time 
 appear to go much faster. '' There was a 
 gentleman who had two haymakers. One 
 hot day they worked very hard making hay, 
 and when they had finished the hay rick, 
 late in the evening, the gentleman called 
 them to his hall door, and said, ' My 
 good men, you must be very thirsty, I will 
 give you some beer to drink. Here are 
 eight gallons for you; but you must divide 
 this beer so that each of you may have 
 exactly half, and this you must do before 
 you drink a drop of it.'" 
 
 " That was very easily done," said 
 
no 
 
 Lucy; "each was to have four. What 
 puzzle is there in this ? " 
 
 "Stay, stay, Mrs. Quick-Quick, you will 
 be puzzled yet before you have done. 
 The gentleman had only three vessels in 
 his house, it is said ; the first held eight 
 gallons — the beer was in this ; the second 
 held five gallons, and the third three gal- 
 lons, and these two were empty. Now 
 manage it as you will, Lucy; and with 
 these vessels divide the beer so that you 
 can prove to me, that each man has four 
 gallons exactly. You may pour the beer 
 backwards and forwards as often as vou 
 please, from one of these vessels to an- 
 other." 
 
 Lucy began, and poured from one to 
 another in imaofination for some time, 
 without success ; pour how she would, 
 there was at the end of her measures 
 always five gallons in the eight gallon 
 vessel, and three in the five. At last she 
 perceived how it could be done, and 
 showed how she could prove to Harry 
 
Ill 
 
 that she had divided it equally; '' four 
 gallons, Harry, in the eight gallon ves- 
 sel, and four gallons in the five gallon 
 vessel/' 
 
 So completely had her attention been 
 absorbed by this puzzle, that she had not 
 heard the sound of the departing wheels 
 of the visitors' carriage ; and when she 
 again peeped out of their hiding place, 
 they were surprised to see that the 
 carriag^e was Q:one. 
 
 When they went in their mother told 
 them, that she was sorry they had not 
 sooner made their appearance, because 
 the lady and gentleman who had been 
 with her were remarkably agreeable peo- 
 ple, and had told many things that were 
 entertaining and interesting. 
 
 " Then, mamma, it was not Mrs. and 
 Miss Hanbury?" said Lucy; '' how very 
 provoking. I am sorry, mamma, we have 
 missed hearing entertaining things. Who 
 were the people?" 
 
 " Sir Rupert and Lady Digby, friends 
 of your father's." 
 
112 
 
 " I never lieard of them before," said 
 Lucy. 
 
 '' Very likely, my dear." 
 
 " Mamma, what sort of entertaining 
 things did they tell ?" said Lucy. 
 
 " They gave us an account of a ship- 
 wreck, which happened lately on part of 
 the sea shore, near the place where they 
 ive. 
 
 ^' Oh, mamma ! tell it me," cried 
 Harry. 
 
 ^' Yes, pray, mamma," said Lucy. 
 
 ^' First tell me, did not you see me 
 beckoning and making signals to you to 
 come in, my dears ? " said their mother. 
 
 *' Yes, mamma, we saw you," said 
 Harry ; " but we thought that it would 
 be tiresome, and we did not like to go 
 in ; I liked better to go on with what I 
 was about." 
 
 His mother told Harry, that she would 
 not have beckoned to him unless she had 
 til ought it was worth his while to come 
 in ; ^' And," added she, smiling, " you 
 must now abide by your own choice, 
 
113 
 
 for I will never tell you of the ship 
 wreck. 
 
 '^ Pray, at least, mamma, tell it to 
 Harry," said Lucy ; '* because it was all 
 my fault that we did not come in. I 
 did not like to come, because — look at 
 my frock, mamma." 
 
 " It is very much soiled, indeed," said 
 her mother. 
 
 " With the water from my puddle and 
 my glass pump, mamma," said Harry ; 
 ^' that was my fault." 
 
 Her mother asked Lucy why she could 
 not put on another frock. " Have not you 
 any other, Lucy ?" 
 
 " Yes, mamma," said Lucy, colouring, 
 ^' I have ; but I could not put on any of 
 them, because one is so short, it comes 
 up to here ; and I forgot to let down the 
 tucks. And another has a great tear in 
 it ; I intended to have given it to be 
 mended this morning; and one sleeve is 
 half out of the third, mamma. I tore it 
 last night, as I was reaching down a book 
 from the uppermost shelf." 
 
114 
 
 Her mother said, that there must be no 
 more experiments of any kind, till Lucy 
 should have these things mended. 
 
 " I know that is quite right, mamma," 
 said Lucy. ^' I expected you would say 
 so. I will go up to my room directly, 
 and let down the tucks. But, mamma, 
 while I am away, could you be so 
 kind as to tell Harry the story of the 
 shipwreck ? " 
 
 " I could^' said her mother, smiling, 
 " but I will not. In the first place, I 
 should be sorry to tell it when you were 
 not present ; but I do not intend to tell 
 it to him at all ; for if I were to repeat 
 to him every thing entertaining which I 
 heard this morning, he would depend 
 upon my doing the same another time, 
 and he would not exert himself to con- 
 quer that feeling of bashfulness, which 
 prevents his coming into a room where 
 there are strangers, and which makes him 
 always say, ' I would rather stay out 
 of the room, and go on with my own 
 affairs.' " 
 
115 
 
 " Now, brother, for the air pump," cried 
 Lucy, " as you used to say, * Now, papa, 
 for the barometer.'" 
 
 ^' My uncle," said Harry, " has been so 
 good as to lend me his portable air pump 
 to show you. Was not it good of him to 
 lend it?" 
 
 " Very good indeed," said Lucy ; " and 
 how convenient to have so many things 
 portable ! Portable barometer, portable hy- 
 grometer, portable air pump." 
 
 " Now, Lucy, recollect what was the 
 great thing to be done in pumping," said 
 Harry. 
 
 " Was not it to make a vacuum?" said 
 Lucy, hesitating, as if she was afraid of 
 makino^ a mistake. 
 
 " Yes, to be sure, my dear," said Harry. 
 " Be quite certain about that." 
 
 " I am quite certain," said she; '* I was 
 only afraid to say it at first, lest I should 
 not be riorht." 
 
 " But do not be afraid. When you 
 know a thing, know it very firmly. The 
 
116 
 
 truth cannot alter between yesterday and 
 to day ; nor can the truth ever alter, you 
 know." 
 
 " That is a great comfort," said Lucy. 
 '' Was not it Boyle who invented the air 
 pump, or was it Torricelli ?" 
 
 " Neither," said Harry ; *' it was that 
 poetry you repeated, which put that mis- 
 take into your head. -And when once 
 one has got any thing wrong into one's 
 head there is no getting it out again. 
 But you are partly right. Boyle im- 
 proved the air-pump very much, and it 
 is sometimes called the Boylean vacuum, 
 that is, Boyle's vacuum. But Boyle was 
 too honest a man to claim for his own 
 the first vacuum. I mean the first making 
 use of it for the air pump. He knew, 
 and always said, it was Otto Guerick's 
 invention." 
 
 *^ Well, I dare say it was," said Lucy ; 
 " you need not say any more about it. 
 I do not care much who made the first 
 vacuum, nor who first made use of it for 
 the air pump," 
 
117 
 
 " You do not ! Lucy, my dear, con- 
 sider what you say. Suppose I had in- 
 vented the air pump, or something as 
 great, would you, my sister, like that 
 somebody else should take from me the 
 honour and glory of the invention?" 
 
 " No, I should not," said Lucy ; " but 
 you are my brother, and alive ; and to be 
 sure I should be anxious that you were 
 not robbed of the glory. But those other 
 people, Mr. Otto Guerick and Mr. Boyle, 
 are nothing to me ; besides, they have 
 been dead and buried long ago, and 
 what signifies it now to any body?" 
 
 *' It signifies a great deal," said Harry. 
 '•' Suppose it was my father, or my grand- 
 father, or my great grandfather, should 
 not I care ? would not vou ? Then so 
 would Otto Guerick's, or Boyle's children, 
 or grandchildren, or great grandchildren, 
 if there are any living. And there is a 
 great family of Boyles, I know ; and do 
 you think that for the world they would 
 give up the Boylean vacuu7}i?" 
 
118 
 
 " I suppose not," said Lucy. " But 
 now let us go on to the air pump itself, 
 and the vacuum, let it be whose it will." 
 
 " So we will," said Harry ; " but before 
 I show it to you, remember, that what 
 you are going to see is a pump for pump- 
 ing out air, not for pumping up water. So 
 put water quite out of your head." 
 
 *' I have put water quite out of my head. 
 I understand that the air pump is to pump 
 out air. But, brother, before you begin, 
 let me say one thing." 
 
 " Say it then, if it is not poetry." 
 
 " No, it is only that I think a pair of 
 bellows is a sort of air pump. Hey, 
 Harry ? " 
 
 *' Well, that is not foolish, Lucy. You 
 may call a pair of bellows a sort of air 
 pump ; only that bellows never could be a 
 right air pump without two valves. But 
 do not go on thinking of them all the time 
 I am explaining to you. Now look at my 
 uncle's air pump. You see this glass," 
 continued Harry, and he pointed to a 
 
119 
 
 lai'D-e glass bell, which stood over a sort 
 of frame or stand. " Lucy, what do you 
 think is in this glass?" 
 
 " Air, I suppose," said Lucy. 
 
 '' It is full of air, and of nothing else," 
 said Harry. " The thing to be done is 
 to get all the air that is in the bell out 
 of it. And that is to be done by means 
 of these pumps," continued he, pointing 
 to two tall cylinders of brass, which stood 
 upon the stand with the glass bell ; they 
 communicated at the bottom with a pipe, 
 which opened into the bell. There was 
 a handle, by which, as he told Lucy, she 
 could move the pistons of these pumps up 
 and down. 
 
 '' Just in the way in which the piston 
 moved up and down in the water pump 
 yesterday," said she. " I see, I see ; it 
 is all nearly the same thing, only that 
 this pumps air out, as you said, and 
 the other water. I understand it all per- 
 fectly." 
 
 *' Stay, stay, Mrs. Quick-Quick, you do 
 not understand it all perfectly yet. You 
 
120 
 
 see only the likenesses, but there are dif- 
 ferences which you do not see yet, and 
 cannot, my dear Mrs. Quick-Quick, be- 
 cause it takes a great deal more time to 
 see the differences than to catch the like- 
 nesses, Mrs. Quick — " 
 
 She put her hand upon his mouth before 
 he could repeat the offensive words. 
 
 " Brother, do not call me Mrs. Quick- 
 Quick, and I will be as slow as you 
 please, and I will not tell you of any of 
 the likenesses I see. I will be quite silent, 
 and only nod my head, when I understand 
 ever so perfectly." 
 
 '^ Then look at the air pump which is 
 before you," said Harry, " and observe 
 what I do. I am going to move the 
 handle which you see at the top, which 
 will raise up one of the pistons. What is 
 underneath the piston?" 
 
 " Nothing," said Lucy at first; but 
 afterwards she added, " I believe there is 
 a vacuum." 
 
 "True. And what happens directly?" 
 said Harry. 
 
121 
 
 " Air comes in directly to fill it, I sup- 
 pose," said she. 
 
 " Where does it come from?" said 
 Harry. 
 
 " It must come from the bell throug^h 
 this pipe," said Lucy, ^' which leads from 
 the bell to the bottoms of the pumps." 
 
 " Then, when that happens, there is 
 less air in the bell than there was before. 
 Is not there?" said Harry. *' Now move 
 the piston down again, and what hap- 
 pens?" 
 
 *' You would press the air that is under 
 the piston back again up the pipe into the 
 bell," said Lucy, " if there is not a valve at 
 the bottom of the pump that shuts against 
 it, and prevents it from going back. But 
 though I do not see it, I suppose there is 
 such a valve, because you told me that it 
 was necessary in all pumps." 
 
 ^' You suppose rightly, and you re- 
 member very well," said Harry. " There 
 is such a valve, and it prevents the air 
 from going back into the bell, when I 
 
 VOL. I. G 
 
122 
 
 push the piston down. But what be- 
 comes of the air?" 
 
 "• It comes out into the open air through 
 the valve in the piston, I suppose." 
 
 " Very true. Now I will move the 
 handle again, and repeat the operation. 
 I should have told you, that we are as- 
 sisted in pumping by the expansive force 
 of the air." 
 
 " I do not understand that," said Lucy. 
 
 " Yes, you do, my dear, if you will only 
 recollect the experiments papa showed you 
 with a bladder," said Harry. 
 
 " Ages ago?" said Lucy. 
 
 " Yes, you remember seeing the blad- 
 der swell out with the expansive force 
 of the air ; and you may recollect, that 
 after blowing in air for some time, when 
 we tried to force in more air we could 
 not ; the bladder swelled out so that we 
 could hardly hold its mouth together to 
 tie it." 
 
 " I rememboi it," said Lucy. 
 
 '' If we had let go the string," said 
 
123 
 
 Harry, " and the mouth of the bladder 
 had opened, what would have hap- 
 pened ?" 
 
 *' The air would have forced its way 
 out," said Lucy. 
 
 " Yes ; air, you know, will expand, and 
 fill every empty place. Now I have 
 pumped out all the air that I can from 
 the bell, and now that it is as empty as 
 we can make it, we call it a vacuum, 
 though very accurate people would tell 
 you, Lucy, that it is not a perfect va- 
 cuum." 
 
 " It will do for me," said Lucy, " and 
 I think I understand the air pump really 
 now. Is there any other difference be- 
 tween it and the water pump, brother? 
 You said there was a difference." 
 
 " I did say so, and I will explain to 
 you what it is, if you will answer my 
 questions patiently. What was it in the 
 glass water pump that you saw yesterday, 
 that pressed up the water into the vacuum 
 below the piston ?" said Harry. 
 
 " It was the outer air ; the weight of 
 
 G 2 
 
124 
 
 the outer air pressing upon the surface 
 of the water that was in the tub, forced 
 the water up into the tube." 
 
 "True; the same in all water pumps," 
 said Harry. " But here is no water for 
 it to press upon. How then is this va- 
 cuum filled ?" 
 
 " By the weight or force of the air 
 itself only, I believe," said she. 
 
 '' What air? ' said Harry. 
 
 " It must be the air in the bell," said 
 she, '^ for I see no other. But that is so 
 little that there cannot be weight enough 
 in that." 
 
 " No," said he, " it is not by weight 
 that this pump acts, but by the spring'wess 
 of the air itself. This is the difference 
 which I wanted you to observe, between 
 the air pump and water pumps." 
 
 " By the springiness of the air?" said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " Yes," said Harry, " you felt the force 
 of that springiness in the bladder when it 
 was full of air." 
 
 Lucy said she should like to feel it 
 
125 
 
 acrain. She had almost forgotten it. Harry 
 blew into a bladder, and filled it with air, 
 and when it was full bid her try to press it 
 together ; when she tried to do it she per- 
 ceived the sort of resistance that it made, 
 and she felt the force with which, after she 
 had squeezed it, it returned to its former 
 place and form. 
 
 " The same springiness," said Harry, 
 '' or what is called the elasticity of the air 
 in the bell, is what fills the vacuum below 
 the piston, each time it is drawn up. Now 
 here is the description and plate of it in 
 Scientific Dialoo^ues, and this is all that 
 you need know about it at present. Stay, 
 I will just look at the print of the air pump 
 in Rees's Cyclopedia, and see if I have 
 left out any thing that I ought to tell you." 
 
 As he opened the book, and as Lucy 
 saw the engravings, she looked a little 
 alarmed. 
 
 " There seem to be as many different 
 air pumps as hygrometers," said she, 
 sighing. 
 
 '^ Do not be afraid, I am not going to 
 
126 
 
 show them to you all," said Harry ; " but 
 now that you know the general principle, 
 you would soon feel it easy, as I did, to 
 understand them." 
 
 ^' Oh no!" said Lucy, "there seem to 
 be such a number of pipes and valves, and 
 little as and ^'s, and p's and ^'s." 
 
 " They only relate to the contrivances to 
 prevent the outer air from coming in, while 
 we are pumping the air out of the vessel 
 that is to be emptied, which it is constantly 
 trying to do. One pump is better than an- 
 other only as it does this most eftectually, 
 and most easily, and as it more perfectly 
 empties or exhausts the vessel. By the 
 bye, I should tell you that this glass ves- 
 sel is called a receiver, and when it is 
 emptied it is called an Cuchausted receiver, 
 I was puzzled at first by those words, ex- 
 hausted receiver.'" 
 
 " Thank you, Harry, for remembering 
 that for me." 
 
 " Now, my dear Lucy, you shall work a 
 little at the air pump yourself, as you did 
 at the water pump yesterday." 
 
127 
 
 " Oh thank you, thank you," said she, 
 joyfully ; " there is nothing like working 
 oneself; it fixes a thing so well in my 
 memory. I remember the look and touch 
 of the thinofs much better afterwards." 
 
 While Harry was placing the machine, 
 so that it should be convenient to Lucy, 
 she turned to look at the book of engrav- 
 ings, that lay open on the table. 
 
 *' How well this air pump is done," 
 said she. " It is very like my uncle's ; 
 not quite, perhaps. I will take care to 
 mind about the differences.'' 
 
 " This is very like it," said Harry; 
 " there is no difference of any conse- 
 quence." 
 
 " If we had not had my uncle's," said 
 Lucy, " I think you could have made me 
 understand the air pump quite well from 
 this engraving ; that is, after my having 
 seen the glass pump yesterday, and its 
 valve and the piston ; but without that I 
 could not have understood it from this 
 representation ; because I see here only 
 the outside of a pump. Even though you 
 
128 
 
 had described the valves, and explained 
 them to me ever so clearly, I should not 
 have understood them so well as by having 
 seen and touched them, and moved them 
 myself." 
 
 " Certainly," said Harry ; " but next to 
 seeing the real thing, these engravings 
 or drawings help one very much. Look, 
 though you see only the outside of the 
 pump in that perspective view, here is the 
 inside of an air pump, all laid open for 
 you. You know what is meant by a sec- 
 tion ? " 
 
 '^Oh ! yes," said Lucy. "Suppose any 
 thing to be cut in two, what you see in- 
 side of each part, when they are separated, 
 is a section. Papa explained that, and 
 showed it to me, when he cut a lemon in 
 two for me. I remember this minute, as 
 well as if I saw it before my eyes, the 
 look of the lemon, with the pippins cut in 
 half, each in their little cells, the cells cut 
 open too ; and I remember — " 
 
 " Very well, my dear," interrupted 
 Harry, " you remember very well what 
 
129 
 
 is meant by a section, therefore you will 
 understand this plate and this figure. 
 But, Lucy, never be ashamed to tell me 
 if you do not understand ; you know 
 I have but just learnt tliese things myself, 
 and I remember the odd mistakes I used 
 to make, and the puzzles I was in when 
 papa was teaching me." 
 
 Lucy looked at the engravings now 
 without alarm, because, as she knew what 
 they represented, they did not puzzle her, 
 and she was not afraid of being tired. 
 
 After having; looked at the section, she 
 said it made the whole as plain to her eye 
 as if it had been made of glass. Some- 
 thing farther, she said to herself, about a 
 man's having; a window in his breast: but 
 either she did not say it loud enough for 
 Harry to hear, or he did not think it much 
 to the purpose, for without attending to it 
 he shut the book, saying, " Now we have 
 had enough of the prints. I thought just 
 now you were very eager to work the air 
 pump yourself, Lucy." 
 
 ^' So I am still," said Lucy; '•' only it 
 
 G 5 
 
130 
 
 was not quite ready, and I looked at 
 the prints between times. Now let me 
 pump." 
 
 " Pump away; this way," said he, show- 
 ing her how to hold the handle, and how 
 to move it backwards and forwards, and 
 how she worked two pistons at the same 
 time. 
 
 She worked it, but not without difficulty. 
 After she had pumped for some minutes, 
 she found the difficulty increasing, and 
 asked from what this arose. 
 
 Harry said, from the resistance made by 
 the pressure of the outward air, which be- 
 comes PTeater as the receiver is more and 
 more exhausted. He took off the receiver, 
 and put her hand over the hole at the top 
 of the pipe, which communicates with the 
 pumps, and bid her move the pistons 
 with her other hand gently. She did so, 
 and felt that part of the palm of her hand, 
 which was over the pipe, drawn in. Her 
 brother repeated, " gently, gently," as she 
 moved the handle. Indeed, soon there 
 was no occasion to say so to her, for she 
 
131 
 
 felt the palm drawn in so as to be quite 
 painful, and she grew red with fright. 
 
 *' Oh ! brother, it hurts me very much; 
 I cannot take my hand away. What shall 
 I do?" 
 
 " Stop pumping," said he, ''' and do not 
 be friofhtened ; there is no dano;er." 
 
 She stopped pumping, and her brother 
 turned a screw, so as to let the air into the 
 receiver. This relieved her hand. She 
 held it up to show him a purple circle all 
 round the inside of the hand. 
 
 He pitied it a little — a very little. Lucy 
 thought not quite enough. 
 
 *' I know," said he, " exactly how much 
 it hurts you, because I have done the same 
 a hundred times to my own hand. My 
 dear, I wanted you to feel as I did myself. 
 There is, as you said, nothing like feeling, 
 to make one remember well. What do 
 you think caused this ? " 
 
 At first Lucy answered, that she did not 
 know. 
 
 " Because you are thinking of the pain 
 in your hand," said he. 
 
132 
 
 " That is true," said Lucy, " but it is 
 pretty well over now. What did you ask 
 me: 
 
 *' I asked you what caused that kind of 
 sucking in of your hand into the exhausted 
 receiver f 
 
 She thought for an instant, and an- 
 swered, 
 
 " I believe it was the pressure of the 
 outer air, which was trying to get in at 
 that hole, to fill the vacuum, and which 
 was prevented by the palm of my hand, 
 which it then drove in as much as it could. 
 Well, now I am sure I have felt ' the 
 pressure of the viewless air ;' and now 
 you must let me repeat the line, 
 
 ' The spring and pressure of the viewless air.' 
 
 Harry repeated it after her, declaring it 
 was a very pretty line, besides, it had some 
 common sense in it. Lucy had said it 
 quite at the right time, when it did not 
 interrupt him, or any thing that was going 
 on. He was so much pleased with it, that 
 he begged of her to repeat all those lines 
 
 ? }j 
 
133 
 
 again for him; and when they went out to 
 their garden soon afterwards, instead of 
 beginning to dig, he desired her to say 
 the lines once more, for that he must learn 
 them by heart. Thus he learnt from her 
 some of her taste for poetry, while she 
 acquired from him some of his love of 
 science. 
 
 In repeating these lines, Lucy observed 
 which of them alluded to the barometer, 
 and which to the air pump, ^yhen she 
 had first learned them by rote, barometer 
 and air pump had been so jumbled in her 
 head, that she could not understand them. 
 
 (C 
 
 How up exhausted tubes bright currents flow 
 Of liquid silver from the lake below; 
 Weigh the long column of th' incumbent skies, 
 And with the changeful moment fall or rise — " 
 
 she now knew described the barometer 
 and the succeeding lines the air pump : 
 
 " How, as in brazen pumps the pistons move. 
 The membrane valve sustains the weight above ; 
 Stroke follows stroke, the gelid vapour falls. 
 And misty dew-drops dim the chrystal walls ; 
 Rare and more rare expands the fluid thin. 
 And silence dwells with vacancy within." 
 
134 
 
 While Harry was learning these lines 
 by heart, Lucy stopped as she prompted 
 the couplet concerning " gelid vapour" 
 and "misty dew-drops," and objected, " I 
 do not understand about misty dew-drops 
 on the chrystal walls. I did not perceive 
 any vapour on the glass bell." 
 
 Her brother told her, that these lines 
 alluded to a fact which he had not yet 
 mentioned to her, which his father had 
 but very lately told him, and he was not 
 clear enough yet about it to attempt to 
 explain it to her. 
 
 Lucy said she was satisfied to wait; 
 that it was best not to know every thing 
 at once, and pleasant to have something 
 to look forward to. But altogcether she 
 confessed, that though the air pump was 
 curious and ingenious, to use the air to 
 drive itself out, yet the water pump she 
 thought a much grander, and a much more 
 useful machine. She thought the air 
 pump was not of any use. 
 
 Harry smiled, and answered, '^ So I 
 thought at first. But, my dear, that was 
 
135 
 
 owing to my ignorance. And when you 
 know more you will find that the air pump 
 is of great use. There are many expe- 
 riments in natural history, as papa showed 
 me, that could never have been tried, and 
 discoveries that could never have been 
 made without it. For instance, to give 
 you a little peep into the matter, we could 
 never, without an air pump, have known 
 that a 2:uinea and a feather would fall to 
 the ground in the same time, if there was 
 no air to resist the fall of either of them." 
 
 " A guinea and a feather ! A heavy 
 guinea and a light feather I oh, brother T 
 
 " Very true, I assure you ; as you will 
 see one of these days." 
 
 *' Harry, now I think I recollect I heard 
 this about the guinea and the feather be- 
 fore, or read it somewhere ; and something 
 else too about the guinea's making no 
 more noise than the feather when it falls. 
 You will show me this too, will you?" 
 
 " I am not sure that I can, Lucy," said 
 Harry, " I tried in this air pump, and I 
 did not find it was so. The guinea fell 
 
136 
 
 on the metal plate here at the bottom, and 
 this plate touches the outer air, and rings, 
 makes a noise." 
 
 " I do not clearly understand why it 
 should make a noise when it falls, or why 
 it should not, ' said Lucy. 
 
 " I cannot explain it yet," said Harry; 
 ^' and I must try the experiment about the 
 noise over again, to make myself sure 
 whether I am right or wrong. I am certain 
 that the feather and guinea come to the 
 ground in the same time, for that experi- 
 ment I have tried often, and it always suc- 
 ceeded." 
 
 " Show it to me now," said Lucy. 
 
 " No, not now. But you shall see all 
 this, and a great deal more in time," said 
 Harry. '^ But, Lucy, how could you say 
 that the air pump is of no use ? When 
 you know more about it, you will see 
 how much you were mistaken. You will 
 find, that all we know about the specific 
 gravities, the different weights of bodies, 
 and a great many curious facts about 
 sound, and I cannot tell you how many 
 
137 
 
 delightful experiments and discoveries 
 about the air that comes out of vegetables, 
 and about the growing of seeds and of 
 plants, and other experiments about dif- 
 ferent kinds of gases, as they are called — 
 I say, my dear Lucy, as my father told 
 me, none of these could have been known 
 without the air pump. And then as to the 
 gases — Oh, my dear, I cannot explain 
 to you yet of what amazing consequence 
 the erases are." 
 
 Lucy opened her eyes, and stood look- 
 ing, as if she thought she could never ad- 
 mire enough. After a reverend pause, she 
 simply repeated the word '' Gases I" 
 
 " My dear, do not ask me about them 
 yet. You are a great, great way yet from 
 the gases. But if you are good I will put 
 you into boiling water to-night at tea, and 
 get you on to steam and the steam en- 
 gme. 
 
 " Thank you," said Lucy, without know- 
 ing clearly what w^as to happen to her. 
 
 " Now^ let us finish the new^ road to my 
 garden," said Harry. " But, before we 
 
138 
 
 go, I hope you will acknowledge the air 
 pump, besides being very ingenious, is as 
 useful as the water pump at least. Hey, 
 Mrs. Lucy, you look "as if you were not 
 convinced yet." 
 
 " I must wait till I have seen and till I 
 can understand all these things, before I 
 can decide," said Lucy. 
 
 "Very provokingly prudent and slow 
 all at once," muttered Harry, striking the 
 stones of the new road with his pounder, 
 
 " Why brother, how can I possibly say 
 more, when you tell me I am so far from 
 the gases ; and I am sure I did not under- 
 stand a word you said about specific gra- 
 vities ; as to the experiment about the 
 feather and the guinea, I long to see that, 
 with all my heart; and I dare say I shall 
 like the others about sound, and seeds, 
 and vegetables, particularly. But these 
 are all curious experiments for grand phi- 
 losophers, with your air-pump ; they may 
 be useful to your men of science, brother ; 
 but what I say is, that the common pump 
 is more useful to common people, every 
 
139 
 
 day. And I do say, that I like those ma- 
 chines best, which are most useful." 
 
 All the rest Harry heard patiently or 
 passively, as he went on pounding his 
 road ; but when she came to the last words, 
 " And I do say, that I like those machines 
 best which are most useful," he threw down 
 his pounder, exclaiming, "You are very 
 ungrateful, Lucy !" and he wiped his fore- 
 head, for he was very hot ; but, checking 
 himself, he added, " Ungrateful to the air 
 pump, I mean." 
 
 " My dear, I did not mean to be un- 
 grateful to the air pump," said Lucy, sur- 
 prised that he could grow so warm about 
 it. " I did not mean to affront the air 
 pump, or you : I am sure I did not know 
 you cared which I preferred. What can 
 make you care so much about the pumps ? " 
 
 " I do not know," said Harry. " But I 
 was vexed because you would not do jus- 
 tice to the air pump, and you gave your 
 opinion against it, without knowing all. I 
 thought that you were like that foolish 
 woman, who said to the great chemist, 
 
140 
 
 * Of what use is all your chemistry, if it 
 cannot teach you to tell me how to take 
 the iron-moulds out of my gown?' Lucy, 
 I hope you will never be so foolish." 
 
 "Never, I hope," said Lucy; "and I 
 hope you do not think I ever shall." 
 
 " No, I hope not," said Harry. " But 
 now I must say for the air pump, there is 
 a use that may be made of it in common 
 every day, in hot weather, to make some- 
 thing that is exceedingly agreeable." 
 
 "What can it be?" said Lucy. 
 
 " Particularly with sweet-meats and 
 creams," continued Harry. "Very good 
 of pine apple, and pleasant of tea; mamma 
 told me, not bad even of water." 
 
 " Do you mean ice ? " said Lucy. 
 
 " Yes," said he, " the air pump can 
 make ice." 
 
 "Oh! Harry, I cannot believe that. How 
 can that possibly be done ? " 
 
 " Go to Conversations on Chemistry, 
 my dear, and you will be answered." 
 
 " Very well, I will go to Conversations 
 on Chemistry," said Lucy ; " but not till I 
 
141 
 
 have dug this bed in my garden, and tied 
 up all my carnations, and fed my white 
 rabbit, and finished drawing the last snake 
 of my head of Medusa, and put by the sul- 
 phurs in the cabinet, and practised ' The 
 rising of the lark.'" 
 
 "Very little chance indeed, through all 
 that jumble of thing^s, of your rememberino- 
 Conversations on Chemistry and the air 
 pump," said Harry. 
 
 "You shall see," said Lucy; "' I have 
 always a good memory for what I wish 
 to do." 
 
 "Harry, I have done all that I said I 
 would: I have duo^ the bed in mv ear- 
 den, tied up my carnations, fed my white 
 rabbit, finished my Medusa's snakes, put 
 the sulphurs into their cabinet, practised 
 my rising of the lark, and read and under- 
 stood all that vou marked forme in 'Con- 
 versations on Chemistry*.'" 
 
 * Eighth Edition, vol. i, from page 151 to 160. 
 
142 
 
 " Really ! You have done a great deal," 
 said Harry ; " much more than I expected. 
 I thought the white rabbit would have 
 made you forget every thing else. And 
 do you quite understand all you have 
 read?" 
 
 " I do," said Lucy, " for it is very 
 clear. As I was reading, I thought I saw 
 every thing that was described; and after 
 I had finished, I was more anxious than 
 before, to see the experiment you pro- 
 mised to show me. Will you let me see 
 it now, before I forget what I understand, 
 and while my head is i?i it, as you say ? " 
 
 " I will show it to you as soon as ever 
 I can," said Harry, " with my father's 
 assistance. He says that I must not at- 
 tempt to try this experiment by ourselves, 
 because sulphuric acid, which must be 
 used in it, is very dangerous to meddle 
 with. If we dropped any of it on our . 
 clothes, it would burn holes in them ; and 
 if we were to let a drop fall on ourselves, 
 it would hurt us exceedingly. So take 
 care, Lucy, not to meddle with it." 
 
143 
 
 " I will take great care," said Lucy. " I 
 will look, but not touch." 
 
 While Harry went out of the room to 
 his father, who was preparing for their 
 experiment, Lucy talked to her mother 
 about the entertaining account, which she 
 had just been reading, of the method of 
 making ice in India, even in the hottest 
 nights. 
 
 '' How glad they must be, mamma," 
 said Lucy, " when in the morning they 
 see the ice in the shallow pans, which 
 they leave out of doors during the night ! 
 Mamma," continued she, " I think that 
 the Emily and Caroline in this book must 
 have been very happy, seeing all the nice 
 experiments mentioned here, and talking 
 to their mother about them, and learning 
 from her. This Mrs. B. seems to be a 
 very good, kind mother. I should like to 
 know her, if she is really a live person. 
 Is there such a real person as Mrs. B., 
 mamma?" 
 
 ^' Yes, there is, Lucy." 
 
144 
 
 "There is ! And are you acquainted with 
 her, mamma ? " Lucy asked eagerly. 
 
 " I am, my dear." 
 
 " You are ! And what sort of person is 
 she ? Do you like her ? Oh ! yes, mamma, 
 I see by your look before you speak. You 
 like her very much." 
 
 " I do, indeed, Lucy." 
 
 " I am glad she is an acquaintance of 
 yours, mamma. I hope I shall see her 
 some time." 
 
 " She is more than an acquaintance of 
 mine, she is my friend ; and if you deserve 
 it, my dear daughter, I hope that she will 
 some time be yours." 
 
 "Oh, brother! What do you think mam- 
 ma has just told me," cried Lucy, running 
 to meet Harry, who at this instant opened 
 the door, and came in, followed by his 
 father." 
 
 "Oh! papa, do you know — " 
 
 But observing that her father's hands 
 were full, and that he and Harry were 
 intent upon bringing in the air pump, 
 
145 
 
 she wisely ceased her exclamations, and 
 stopped short in what she was going to say. 
 
 " Right to be silent, my dear,' said her 
 father, as she stood by without uttering a 
 wordj all the time they were preparing to 
 show her the experiment. " It is very 
 troublesome and disagreeable to have little 
 girls, or little any bodies, or great any 
 bodies, talking all the time we are busy 
 preparing experiments." 
 
 ^' Busy and anxious too, you know, 
 papa ; for some experiments are danger- 
 ous," said Harry. 
 
 Lucy had learned from what she had 
 just read, that sudden evaporation pro- 
 duces cold sufficient to freeze in a va- 
 cuum, even when the outer air is much 
 above the freezing point. A thermome- 
 ter was near the air pump, and Lucy 
 looked at it, as Harry desired she would. 
 She saw that the mercury stood at 65 
 degrees, and she felt that the room was 
 warm. 
 
 Her father placed under the receiver a 
 large shallow saucer, filled with sulphuric 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
146 
 
 acid, and in it a small cup of water, 
 raised on a little stand, with a thermome- 
 ter in it, as described in Conversations on 
 Chemistry. 
 
 He asked Lucy if she knew for what 
 purpose the sulphuric acid was put there. 
 
 She said that the book had told her, that 
 the use of the sulphuric acid was to at- 
 tract and absorb what was evaporated from 
 the water, before it is frozen. 
 
 *'And why should it be absorbed?" 
 said her father. 
 
 " Because we want to freeze the water," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " True ; but you have not explained to 
 me, why we desire that the sulphuric acid 
 should absorb this vapour." 
 
 " Because, papa, that vapour fills up 
 part of the vacuum, and it must be taken 
 away, and the sulphuric acid does this as 
 it absorbs it." 
 
 *' She understands it," said Harry. " Now 
 we may go on — look, Lucy, at what hap- 
 pens — keep your eyes fixed upon the 
 water." 
 
147 
 
 She did so, and she. soon saw little 
 bubbles appearing on its surface. 
 
 " It is beginning to do something," said 
 she; "but it looks more as if it were going 
 to boil than to freeze." 
 
 " You know," said he, " that before 
 water can freeze it must appear to boil." 
 
 "Yes, appear; I understand why you 
 say appear. That was explained to me in 
 the book." 
 
 " Now it begins to freeze," said Harry, 
 " look at the little spikes of ice." 
 
 Lucy saw this, and said it was ver}^ 
 curious ; but still she did not look quite so 
 much surprised and pleased as Harry had 
 expected, because, els she said, she saw 
 only such tiny spikes of ice. She had ima- 
 gined, that all the remaining water in 
 the cup would have been turned at once 
 into a solid lump. 
 
 Harry had talked to her about pine 
 apple ice, and various other kinds of ice, 
 which were so pleasant to eat in hot wea- 
 ther, and which he boasted that the air 
 pump was so useful in assisting people to 
 
 H 2 
 
148 
 
 make; but from the tiny spikes she had 
 seen, she could scarcely conceive that a 
 sufficient quantity could be made for this 
 good purpose. Harry asked his mother, if 
 she would give them some cream and some 
 sweetmeat, to make sweet ice-cream; he 
 wished exceedingly to show Lucy, that it 
 could really be done in the air pump. 
 Their kind mother provided them with all 
 that Harry desired; but she doubted that 
 they would be able to succeed, as it was 
 difficult even to freeze water. Harry was 
 determined to try, for he had heard that it 
 was a common practice in London, to make 
 use of an air pump in making ice-cream. 
 His father warned him that he w^as mis- 
 taken, but that he mighttry, and that he 
 would then find out what his mistake had 
 been. 
 
 Harry put the cream into a small tea 
 cup, and Lucy mixed with it their rasp- 
 berry jelly. They put the tea cup into a 
 larger cup filled with water, and this they 
 placed on a little stand, which rested on a 
 saucer, filled with sulphuric acid, within 
 
149 
 
 the glass bell of the air pump. It hap- 
 pened, as it too often happens to young 
 experimenters, and to old ones also, that 
 their experiment did not succeed. They 
 could not freeze the cream. 
 
 They tried to console themselves by eat- 
 ing the cream and sweetmeat. This was, 
 however, but an imperfect consolation to 
 Harry. The honour of the air pump, and 
 his own, were at stake, and he recurred to 
 the subject immediately. 
 
 " I suppose my mistake was in put- 
 ting the cream and sweetmeat into the air 
 pump. I was • only told that the air pump 
 was useful in making ice. How they make 
 the ice cream with it, I cannot guess,' said 
 Harry. 
 
 "I can tell you that," said Lucy, "for I 
 once saw the housekeeper make raspberry 
 ice-cream." 
 
 " Have you?" said Harry; "and how 
 did she do it?" 
 
 " She put some cream and sweetmeat 
 into a tin cylinder : tin I believe it was, or 
 pewter. And this she surrounded with 
 
150 
 
 a great deal of pounded ice and salt. 
 Then she kept turning and turning the 
 cylinder round, with the cream in it, till at 
 last it was all frozen." 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! " said Harry, '' then now I see 
 how it is. The air pump produces ice 
 enough to freeze the cream. That must be 
 the way it is useful." 
 
 ^* But how can it produce it in such 
 quantities as would be necessary? It would 
 be a year, at the rate I saw it going on, with 
 a little cupful of water," said Lucy. 
 
 Harry acknowledged this, and they ap- 
 pealed to their father. 
 
 He told them, that, for this purpose, 
 much larger air pumps than they had ever 
 seen would be necessary. That conse- 
 quently a greater vacuum was produced, 
 and more water frozen. 
 
 " Then it is true, Lucy, you see, the air 
 pump does make the ice that makes the ice 
 cream, and it is used for this purpose in 
 London. Is not it, papa ? " 
 
 ''Not in London," answered their father; 
 " it is too expensive a process to be of 
 
151 
 
 much advantage in this country ; but I be- 
 lieve it has been found useful in India." 
 
 ''In India! There, Lucy, you see how 
 useful it is, and how far its fame goes,'' 
 said Harry. 
 
 " Did they really send an air pump 
 made in England to India for this pur- 
 pose: 
 
 "Yes," said her father. "And when 
 we go to London, I will show you Mr. 
 Carey's apparatus for making ice." 
 
 "Oh! thank you, father; and I shall 
 really see it made, not in little spikes, but 
 in quantities," said Lucy. 
 
 "Now, Lucy, you will acknowledge," 
 said Harry, "that the air pump is useful 
 for common purposes." 
 
 " I will ; I do," said Lucy. 
 
 " And you will have much more to 
 acknowledge on this subject by and by," 
 said her father ; " you will see other pur- 
 poses for common life, to which it is ap- 
 plied." 
 
 " Oh ! what, father?" cried Harry. 
 
 " That I will not tell you now, Harry." 
 
152 
 
 In the evening, before tea time, Harry 
 and Lucy played at spillikens, and after-, 
 wards a game of chess, in which Harry was 
 beaten ; because he was thinking of some* 
 thing he was going to tell Lucy about the 
 steam engine, and he missed seeing a rogue 
 of a knight that had got so close to his 
 king, that he could not stir without being 
 check-mated. 
 
 " Now for the steam engine, which you 
 promised to explain to me," said Lucy. 
 
 Harry was afraid that he could not, and 
 turning to his father, asked him to explain 
 it. But his father desired that he would 
 first tiy what he could do. 
 
 " This will be of service to you, Harry, 
 for you will be then certain whether you 
 comprehend it yourself or not. People 
 are never sure they understand any thing 
 perfectly till they have explained it to an- 
 other. If Lucy is puzzled I will help you 
 out of your difficulty, whatever it may be." 
 
 Harry said he would try, and began 
 with these words : — 
 
 " In the first place, a steam engine is a 
 
Iv53 
 
 machine — "' There he stopped, and began 
 aofain with, 
 
 ^'In the first place, Lucy, you must know, 
 that the machine called a steam engine was 
 invented — " He stopped short again, and 
 a third time he attempted it, but he hesi- 
 tated, and blushed, and turning again to his 
 father, he said, "I cannot explain it before 
 you, father. I am so anxious. It is very 
 odd. I am not the least afraid of you, you 
 know ; but I feel so ashamed and anxious. 
 I think I should do it a great deal better if 
 you were not by," 
 
 " Very well,"' said his father, laughing ; 
 " then either you or I must go out of the 
 room it seems. Luckily for you, I am just 
 going into the next room. Ls that far 
 enouo-h off? thouo^h the foldino- doors are 
 
 o o o 
 
 open, I assure you I shall not hear you." 
 " That will do perfectly," said Harry. 
 *' But what will you do about mamma ? 
 
 She must stay to make tea," said Lucy. 
 
 " Look, here is the urn comino' in. Had 
 
 not you better come out into the hall with 
 
 me, Harry ? " 
 
 H 5 
 
154 
 
 ** No, no/' said Harry, " I do not mind 
 mamma; and now I think of it, I want 
 the urn. Lucy, look at the steam coming 
 from the top of that urn ; do you recollect, 
 a great while ago, my father's holding a 
 cold plate over the steam coming from the 
 urn?" 
 
 " Yes," Lucy said, she remembered it 
 well, though it was a great while ago. 
 She remembered, that the cold of the plate 
 had turned the steam into water again, con- 
 densed it. She recollected the drops on 
 the plate, which afterwards ran into each 
 other, and down into little streams, when 
 the plate was sloped. 
 
 *' Yes," interrupted Harry, " you have 
 recollected enough of that ; you are clear 
 then that cold can condense steam, that is, 
 can turn it back again into water." 
 
 '* Perfectly clear," said Lucy. 
 
 " Now recollect another thing," said 
 Harry ; " which took up most room, the 
 steam, when it was steam, or when it was 
 turned into water ? " 
 
 " It took up much the most room when 
 
155 
 
 it was steam," said Lucy. " I am sure, 
 that cloud of steam which you see rising 
 from the tea urn, and which takes up so 
 much room in the air, might, if you held a 
 cold plate over it this minute, be condensed 
 into a few drops, which would not half 
 fill a tea spoon." 
 
 " Very true," said Harry ; " now do not 
 think any more about that : but do you re- 
 collect our talking, a great while ago, 
 about the tea kettle's boiling over, as it is 
 called; and do you remember my saying, 
 that if the top of the tea kettle was 
 screwed down tight, and if the spout was 
 stopped, so that no steam could get out, 
 that I thought the tea kettle would burst?" 
 
 " I remember it all," said Lucy; "and 
 papa said, you were veiy right; and I 
 remember afterwards the burstino; and ex- 
 plosion of my chesnuts ; and the story papa 
 told us of his pouring the hot lead into the 
 damp elder, to make a pencil; and the 
 fact* I read about the burstino^ of a little 
 
 * Scientific Dialogues. 
 
156 
 
 hollow brass ball, in which there was water, 
 that turned to steam, and which caused 
 an explosion, that blew a whole foundery 
 to pieces." 
 
 ^' Then you have some idea of the power 
 of steam when it expands," said Harry. 
 
 "To be sure I have," said Lucy ; "I 
 know it is terribly great, bursting and 
 killing people, and tearing away ! How 
 frightened I should have been, if I had 
 been papa, when he was a little boy, when 
 the lead bounced up to the top of the 
 ceiling. I am sure I was frightened enough 
 when my own horse chesnuts bounced." 
 
 " But if this terribly great power," said 
 Harry, " is carefully used, and cleverly 
 used, it will do, as you shall see, the most 
 surprising, and the most useful things ; it 
 would raise water high as the house, and 
 higher, from the bottom of the deepest 
 mine : it could raise the weight of this 
 room, and all that is in it, as high as the 
 top of the highest tree, and higher." 
 
 '' Oh, brother ! brother !" said Lucy. 
 
 " It is quite tme ; it can do more in an 
 
157 
 
 hour, than two hundred horses, and four- 
 teen hundred men. It can drag loaded 
 waggons full of coal, such as you have 
 seen going step by step, the horses pulling 
 hard — it can pull these waggons up as 
 easily as I can pull your little cart." 
 
 " My dear brother, how can I believe 
 it !" said Lucy. 
 
 " It can drive across the sea, against the 
 power of the wind and the tide, a great 
 ship, with all the people in it, and all their 
 horses and carriages, and all that they 
 have in the world." 
 
 " Is it really possible?" said Lucy. " I 
 have heard people talking of steam boats, 
 and of the workinor of steam eno^ines ; and 
 I remember papa's asking a gentleman, who 
 was here the other day, whether his steam 
 engine was an hundred horse power. But 
 I never knew how this was, nor could I 
 conceive that steam could do all this by 
 itself. Only steam like that?" said she, 
 fixing her eyes upon the steam that still 
 came from the tea urn. 
 
 " Yes, only steam like that," repeated 
 
158 
 
 Harry. " Think what we men can make 
 it do at our bidding." 
 
 " Really and truly, Harry," said Lucy, 
 ^* it does more at men's bidding than any 
 of the genii in the Arabian Tales, more 
 than any of the slaves of Aladdin's lamp, 
 for the hardest working of them could only 
 be made to carry one house." 
 
 " Very true, indeed," said Harry, and 
 for once he was pleased with an allusion. 
 
 " But," continued Lucy, " I should be 
 very much afraid of its doing some great 
 mischief some day, like the African ma- 
 gician. Do you remember ?" 
 
 *' But, my dear," interrupted Harry, 
 *' do not tell me any thing more about 
 the African magician/' 
 
 " Only this one thing, Harry, if you 
 would let me get it out of my head, I 
 should attend so much better." 
 
 " No, my dear Lucy. Is it not very 
 hard upon me, that you are to say every 
 thing that comes into your head, and that 
 puts out of mine all that I want to re- 
 member about the steam engine for you ? '" 
 
159 
 
 " I beg your pardon," said Lucy, " I 
 will not say a word more of the African 
 magician. Go on.' 
 
 But poor Harry could not go on im- 
 mediately. " Where was I?" said he to 
 himself. "What was I going to say?" 
 As he spoke he rubbed his forehead first, 
 and then ran his fingers through his hair 
 from the roots upwards, till it was all 
 pushed up, and stood erect, " like quills 
 upon the fretful porcupine." 
 
 " Now I recollect what I was going to 
 say," cried Harry. " Look at the tea urn, 
 Lucy. Ah ! but now it is too late ; there 
 is not steam enough — it is not strong 
 enough to do what I wanted you to see. 
 But at first, when the water was boiling, 
 and the steam rushing out at top, you 
 might have seen it pushing up the lid of 
 the urn, till the steam got out, then the 
 lid fell, and lay still till more steam was 
 formed, and pushed it up again. I wish 
 you had seen it going up and down." 
 
 *' I have often seen it," said Lucy, "and 
 watched it moving ; because sometimes I 
 
160 
 
 was afraid the top would be quite lifted 
 up, and blown oflf." 
 
 " And so it would," said Harry, " if it 
 were not for these little holes, look here, 
 throuo-h which the steam escapes, and 
 which were made on purpose to let it 
 escape, without blowing off the top, or 
 doing any mischief." 
 
 " That is very prudent ; I am glad the 
 holes are there," said Lucy. 
 
 ^' But suppose they were not there," 
 said Harry, *' and the top left loose as 
 it is now. If the water boiled well, as 
 people say, if a great deal of steam came 
 rushing up, and pushing out through this 
 place where the top goes on, you know 
 the top would be lifted up. And suppose 
 I lay on the top this weight," continued 
 he taking up from the table a small weight, 
 which was used for keeping down papers ; 
 '* and suppose I put a lamp under the urn, 
 so as to keep the water boiling, and send- 
 ing up fresh steam, what do you think 
 would happen then ?" 
 
 " I am not sure," said Lucy. " It would 
 
161 
 
 either burst the urn, or lift up the top with 
 that weight upon it. It would, I am 
 sure, lift up the top and weight, because 
 that would be the easiest way for the steam 
 to get out." 
 
 " To be sure. It would require much 
 less force," said Harry, " to lift this little 
 weight than to burst the urn. The ex- 
 pansive force of steam, you know I told 
 you, would lift the house. Now suppose 
 that, instead of that urn, with a little lamp 
 under it, there was a great fire, as large 
 as a kitchen fire and larger, and a great 
 iron boiler, as large as the boiler you have 
 seen in the kitchen and larger, with water 
 boiling in it ; and over the mouth of that 
 boiler suppose we put a cylinder like the 
 body of a pump, as large as that in the 
 yard, and closed well round at the place 
 where it is put in, so that the steam of the 
 boiling water can get out no way but up 
 the cylinder." 
 
 " Then," said Lucy, " how the steam 
 would rush up through the valve in the 
 
162 
 
 piston ! What a cloud of steam would come 
 out at the top !" 
 
 " Stay, stay, Lucy ; I was going to have 
 told you, that in this piston there is to be 
 no valve, it is to be a tight stopper. Now 
 suppose, before I let the steam in, that I 
 have the piston down at the bottom of the 
 pump." 
 
 *' Why then, before you let in the steam 
 you must put a great weight to keep the 
 piston down, or it would be thrown up to 
 the ceiling, as the lead in papa's pencil 
 case was." 
 
 " And I believe," said Harry, " your 
 great weight would be throvni through 
 the ceiling, and would break it to pieces. 
 Consider, my dear, if the small quantity 
 of water, that was in papa's elder pencil 
 case, could, when turned into steam, force 
 the lead up to the ceiling, and if the 
 small quantity of water that was left in 
 the little brass ball could burst, and blow 
 up a whole foundery, such a quantity of 
 steam as this would be able to lift up 
 
163 
 
 and blow up this room, and all that is 
 in it. 
 
 " But if that is your only way of lifting 
 gi'eat weights, and of lifting the house, I 
 do not see how it can be useful." 
 
 " Patience, Lucy. Suppose that we 
 know beforehand the weight of whatever 
 we wish to lift, we can calculate and 
 lessen the fire, and lessen the steam, till 
 it is just enough, and no more than enough, 
 to lift the weight gently up, to whatever 
 height we please — suppose now to the 
 top of the pump. Then you do no mis- 
 chief, you see." 
 
 " Very well," said Lucy, " if you can 
 calculate exactly, and make no mistake. 
 That is very nice." 
 
 "But now suppose you want to do this 
 more than once : to lift several weights, 
 one after another — could you do it? You 
 have the piston and the weight up at the 
 top, and the steam in the cylinder of the 
 pump." 
 
 " I do not know," said Lucy ; " for I 
 
164 
 
 dare not take the weight off the piston. I 
 dare not touch it." 
 
 " I would not advise you to touch it 
 indeed," said Harry. 
 
 " Then what can I do ?" said Lucy. 
 
 " Think," said Harry. 
 
 " But the idea of the steam going on, 
 coming up through the pump, frightens 
 me. I will tell you what I would do ; 
 I would put out the fire directly, throw 
 water upon it." 
 
 " Very well thought of," said Harry, 
 " but then there is steam in the boiler." 
 
 " I would throw water into that if I 
 could, but I cannot get at it. I would 
 throw cold water all over the outside, and 
 that would cool the steam." 
 
 '^ But still there would be the steam in 
 the body of the pump," said Harry. 
 
 '' And I cannot throw water into it be- 
 cause of the stopper," said Lucy. " Well, 
 I will throw cold water over it, all down 
 the sides, and over the piston at top, and 
 cool it, and make it as cold as the plate 
 
165 
 
 papa held over the urn, and colder ; then 
 it would condense the steam within, and 
 turn it into a very small quantity of water." 
 
 " Then what would happen?" said 
 Harry. 
 
 " The piston would fall down — there 
 would be nothing to hold it up. The 
 steam would be all gone." 
 
 " And what would there be, or would 
 there be any thing in the place of the 
 steam?" asked Harry. 
 
 " There would be nothing but a little 
 water ; there would be a vacuum, all but 
 those drops of water," said Lucy. 
 
 " Very well, indeed," said Harry. " Now 
 you have the piston down, how will you 
 raise it again ? I want to have another 
 weight brought up." 
 
 " Then, you know, I must light the fire, 
 and boil the water again," said Lucy. 
 
 " Aye, and wait till the cylinder is 
 heated too ; for, till that is heated, it will 
 condense the steam," said Harry. 
 
 " Certainly," said Lucy, " you must wait 
 till it is hot." 
 
166 
 
 '' But it would be very inconvenient,'' 
 said Harry, " to wait while you light the 
 fire, and boil the water, and so on. Can- 
 not you find any better way of condensing 
 the steam, without putting out the fire 
 every time ? " 
 
 Lucy thought for a few moments, and 
 answered, " Perhaps, without putting out 
 the fire, it would do as well if I could but 
 let cold water into the boiler, and into the 
 cylinder of the pump." 
 
 " But why into the boiler," said Harry. 
 
 " Because the fresh steam would come 
 up continually if I did not prevent it," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " But suppose," said Harry, " you have 
 condensed the steam in the cylinder, and 
 you only want the vacuum for an instant 
 or two, just to let the piston fall ; and sup- 
 pose that for that little time the steam 
 from the boiler could be prevented from 
 coming in ; I need not tell you how, but 
 it can. 
 
 " Then I need not put out the fire, 
 but I may condense the steam in the 
 
167 
 
 cylinder," said Lucy ; '^ that will be 
 much more convenient, because after- 
 wards the steam will be ready to be let 
 in again, under the bottom of the piston, 
 if you want another weight to be sent up. 
 But still I do not know how to get the 
 cold water into the body of the pump, I 
 mean into the cylinder, to condense the 
 steam." 
 
 " The steam," said Harry, " is let off 
 into a separate vessel, called, from its use, 
 a condenser. This vessel is surrounded by 
 cold water, so that the steam is condensed, 
 as soon as it comes into it." 
 
 ^' And is this all the steam engine?" 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " No, my dear Lucy, it is only the 
 general principle. I cannot explain all 
 to you, I should only puzzle you. There 
 are different sorts of steam enmnes. In 
 that invented by Mr. Watt, the expansive 
 force of the steam is used in different 
 degrees, to raise the piston, and to force 
 it down." 
 
168 
 
 " I did not know that the steam was 
 ever let in above the piston," said Lucy. 
 
 "Yes, it is. I did not tell you that at 
 first, lest I should puzzle you, and I will 
 not now tell you exactly how it is done. 
 And there is a great deal more to be ex- 
 plained, about the ways of making the 
 steam engine raise weights, or water, or 
 work machinery, in different directions. 
 Ours was but an awkward way of raising 
 weights, by putting them on the top of the 
 piston. Suppose I want to raise water 
 from a pond, you must put a beam out 
 from the top of the piston, like a scale 
 beam, and with this you might work the 
 piston of a pump fastened at the other end 
 of this beam." 
 
 " Very convenient ! " said Lucy, " and 
 very simple." 
 
 " There are a great many other con- 
 trivances," said Harry, " and ways of 
 making it turn wheels, and pull and push 
 sideways, or in any direction in which 
 you want to have work done, or force 
 
169 ' 
 
 applied ; but I should tire and puzzle you 
 to death if I were to tell you all at once. 
 Papa took several days to explain to me 
 the parallel motion, and the fly wheel, 
 and the sun and planet motion, and the 
 excentric." 
 
 " Oh, my dear brother ! " cried Lucy, 
 stopping her ears, " this would puzzle me 
 to death indeed." 
 
 " Therefore, my dear, I tell you, I will 
 not say one word about any of these 
 things to-day, but I will leave your head 
 quite clear, as I hope it is, in the general 
 principle, as papa calls it. And here he 
 comes with his letter in his hand." 
 
 " Mamma is beginning to pour out tea, * 
 said Lucy, " let us go to her." 
 
 " Stay one minute, Lucy," said Harry. 
 *^ Now, pray, when you are called upon 
 to explain to papa, be quite steady. Do 
 not be a coward, and fancy that you do 
 not know what you do. And do not be 
 too quick neither. Above all do not go 
 the least beyond what you really know. 
 Do not put in any of your ' It^s like this ' 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
170 
 
 or ^ It's like that,' When you have no 
 more to say, stop." 
 
 " I will," said Lucy. " I will not say 
 one word more than is necessary, nor make 
 one allusion or quotation. I will be like 
 your own dear Menelaus : I'll say no more 
 than just the thing I ought." 
 
 " Now, papa, will you ask Lucy to ex- 
 plain to you what she knows of the 
 principle of the steam engine," said 
 Harry, walking up with her to the tea 
 table, with a composed countenance. 
 
 " First, Harry," said his father, " I 
 must ask your mother to read this letter 
 for me, and I have a great deal to say to 
 her about it." 
 
 Harry sat down with a resigned look, 
 and swallowed tea, and eat bread and 
 butter, without hearing one word of 
 what was going on, till at last his 
 father turned to Lucy, and said, *' Now, 
 my dear, I am ready for you and the 
 
 steam engine." 
 
171 
 
 Lucy, who had been listening to the 
 letter, declared she was afraid that the 
 whole of the steam engine had gone out 
 of her head. 
 
 In astonishment Harry stared at her, 
 and, in a tone of indignation, exclaimed, 
 " Is it possible, Lucy ?" 
 
 *' Stay, do not frighten me," said Lucy, 
 " and perhaps I may get it back again." 
 
 She did, and she recollected all Harry 
 had said to her ; she distinctly said " no 
 more than just the thing she ought." Her 
 father was doubly pleased by the clearness 
 with which she made her explanation, be- 
 cause it showed that Harry had understood 
 well what had been taught him. 
 
 " I promise you both," said he, " that, 
 the first time I have an opportunity, I 
 will show you a steam engine." 
 
 Harry was delighted with this promise, 
 and Lucy clapped her hands, and added, 
 " I know, Harry, that the opportunity will 
 come soon." 
 
 Harry was going to ask her how she 
 knew this, but his attention was taken 
 
 I 2 
 
172 
 
 off by his father's observing to him, that 
 he had done well to refrain from de- 
 scribing to his sister any of the lesser 
 parts of the machinery. 
 
 Lucy said, " It was not at all difficult 
 to me, papa, for he brought me up to the 
 steam engine by degrees, and I was quite 
 surprised when I found I was at it. I did 
 not know what he was about when he 
 began with your cold plate, and the tea 
 urn, and the expansive force of the steam, 
 and the condensing the water ; but I saw 
 plainly afterwards, when I found out 
 where I was. It was just like his way of 
 leading me blindfold on the gravel walk, 
 and taking me to this place and that ; and 
 I do not know where I am, or where he is 
 leading me, till he takes the bandage off 
 my eyes, then I am quite surprised at 
 what I see before me." 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! Lucy, I thought you could 
 not get through without an allusion," said 
 Harry. But he was well enough pleased 
 with this. His spirits were so much raised 
 by this commendation, and by the promise 
 
173 
 
 of seeing a steam engine, and a steam 
 boat, and by Lucy's success and his own, 
 that he could not refrain from saying a 
 little more than just the thing he ought. 
 He would now go on to tell her the names 
 of the first, second, third, and fourth inven- 
 tors and improvers of the steam engine. 
 But he was fortunately stopped by his fa- 
 ther's getting up to look for a book, in 
 which, he said, he could find a poetic de- 
 scription of the wonders performed by the 
 expansive force of steam. 
 
 " Oh, I know that book," said Lucy ; 
 " it is the same, Harry, in which there 
 are the lines on the barometer and air 
 pump.'* 
 
 " The description of the steam engine," 
 said their father, " begins by doing honour 
 due to him, who 
 
 ' Bade with cold streams the quick expansion stop. 
 And sunk the immense of vapour to a drop.' 
 
 Who was that, Lucy ? " 
 
 " The inventor of the steam engine, 
 the man who first thought of throwing 
 
174 
 
 cold water upon it to condense the steam," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " Savary, or the Marquis of Worcester, 
 I do not know which," said Harry. " You 
 know, father, there have been many dis- 
 putes for the honour of this great inven- 
 tion." 
 
 " Yes, but let these rest for the pre- 
 sent, Harry," said his father. " Savary 
 is the person alluded to in these lines." 
 
 " Do go on reading, papa," said Lucy. 
 " I like those lines so much." 
 
 Her father continued : — 
 
 " Pressed by the ponderous air, the piston falls, 
 Resistless sliding through its iron walls, 
 Quick moves the balanc'd beam, of giant birth. 
 Wields its large limbs, and, nodding, shakes the 
 
 earth ; 
 The giant power, from earth's remotest caves, 
 Lifts with strong arm her dark, reluctant waves. 
 Each cavern'd rock and hidden depth explores, 
 Drags her dark coals, and digs her shining ores." 
 
 '^ Yes, I understand," said Lucy ; " that 
 describes the steam engine, bringing up 
 water from the bottom of mines, and drag- 
 
175 
 
 ging the coal waggons, as Harry told me it 
 could." 
 
 Her father went on reading : — 
 
 ** Next in close cells of ribbed oak confined, 
 Gale after gale he crowds the strug-gling- wind, 
 Th' imprisoned storms through brazen nostrils roar, 
 Fan the white flame, and fuse the sparkling ore."' 
 
 ^' The great bellows in forges and foun- 
 deries, which are moved by the steam en- 
 gine," said Harry. " I never should have 
 thought they could have roared so well in 
 poetry. Pray go on, papa." 
 
 " Here high in air the rising steam he pours 
 To clay-built cisterns, and to lead-lin'd towers ; 
 Fresh through a thousand pipes the waves distils. 
 And thirsty cities drink th' exuberant rills ; 
 These the vast millstone, with inebriate whirl, 
 On trembling floors his forceful fingers twirl. 
 Whose flinty teeth the golden harvests grind. 
 Feast without blood, and nourish human-kind." 
 
 " Do you understand, Lucy?" said Harry. 
 " I forget, my dear, whether I told you, 
 that the steam engine keeps com mills 
 and all sorts of mills going." 
 
 Lucy nodded. " Do not let us inter- 
 rupt papa ; I will tell when I do not un- 
 
176 
 
 derstand," said Lucy, " but I understand 
 all as far as he has gone." 
 
 " Now his hard hands on Mona's rifted ci'est, 
 
 Bosomed in rock, her azure ores arrest ; 
 
 With iron lips the rapid rollers seize 
 
 The lengthening bars, iu their expansion squeeze ; 
 
 Descending screws, with ponderous fly-wheels wound 
 
 The tawny plates, the new medallions round. 
 
 Hard dies of steel the cupreous circles cramp, 
 
 And with quick fall his massy hammers stamp 
 
 The Harp, the Lily, and the Lion join, 
 
 And George and Britain guard the sterling coin." 
 
 *' Lucy, I am sure you cannot under- 
 stand this," said Harry. 
 
 " No, I was just going to say so, Harry ; 
 I waited only till papa came to a full stop. 
 But I know that Mona means Anglesea." 
 
 Her father said that she was right ; tliat 
 the azure ores allude to copper mines in the 
 Isle of Anglesea, or Mona, which are 
 worked by the steam engine. Cupreous 
 means of copper^ and the ores of copper 
 being blueish, the poet calls them " Mona's 
 azure ores." The succeeding lines describe 
 machinery for coining copper, first rolling 
 out thick bars of it into plates, thin as half- 
 
177 
 
 pence, then cutting those plates into circu- 
 lar forms, and stamping them with the arms 
 of Ireland, France, and England, the harp, 
 the lily, and the lion. All which is done 
 by machinery, without the hands of men, 
 and that machinery is kept at work by the 
 motion and power of a steam engine. 
 
 Harry looked triumphant while his father 
 spoke of these wonders performed by steam . 
 Lucy could not conceive how it could do 
 all this. Her father repeated his promise, 
 that whenever he had an opportunity he 
 would show her how it is done ; and Lucy 
 whispered again to Harry, ''Very soon, too, 
 perhaps." 
 
 *' Is there no more, father ? Is there 
 nothing about the steam boat ? " asked 
 Hany. 
 
 ^' There is," said his father ; " and it 
 is curious, that these lines were written 
 several years before steam boats had been 
 brought into use ; and at a time when it was 
 scarcely believed by any but a few coura- 
 geously ingenious persons, that the steam 
 engine could ever be successfully or safely 
 
 I 5 
 
178 
 
 employed in driving forward vessels on the 
 water. This prophecy, at the time it was 
 made, most people thought merely poetical ; 
 and instead of expecting that it would be 
 soon accomplished, it was thought that it 
 would never be effected : — 
 
 * Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam ! afar 
 Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car.' " 
 
 " The slow barge now goes as fast as 
 you please," said Harry. " The rapid car 
 is to come ; and I dare say that will be ac- 
 complished soon, papa, do not you think it 
 will ? And oh, father, read this ; here is 
 something about a flying chariot, which we 
 did not hear : 
 
 ' Or on mde-waving winds expanded bear 
 The flying chariot through the fields of air.' " 
 
 His father had purposely omitted to read 
 these, and prudently declined giving his 
 opinion. 
 
 Harry became silent and thoughtful for 
 some minutes, but occupied himself with 
 burning a lump of sugar, whose amber 
 drops, as fast as they fell and cooled, he 
 put into Lucy's mouth. And when the 
 
179 
 
 sugar bason was taken from him, he found 
 new recreation for his fingers and thoughts 
 in his mother's tambour needle, which he 
 pushed and pulled up and down, through 
 silk and through paper, till she took that 
 from his hand, and then he had no resource 
 but to lean with both his elbows on her 
 frame, and to watch her plying the needle. 
 Lucy whispered from time to time — 
 
 " Will not you come and play at ' Tra- 
 vellers' with me ? " 
 
 But in vain she twitched his elbow, it 
 remained fixed. 
 
 " My mother's work is like a chain," said 
 Harry ; '' link within link — loop within 
 loop." 
 
 " Yes,'* said Lucy, " it is called chain 
 stitch." 
 
 He watched the lengthening chain, 
 which, with the quick noise of success- 
 ful pricks, advanced towards him, forming 
 a line from one end of the frame to the 
 other, which was accomplished in two mi- 
 nutes, counted by the watch. Then scal- 
 lops and leaves, pointed and round, grew 
 
180 
 
 under her hand. Nothing too difficult for 
 the dexterous hooked needle. 
 
 " It goes on so easily," said Harry, " it 
 seems to do it of itself." 
 
 '' And do you think you could do it, 
 Harry, as mamma does? Mamma, pray 
 let Mm have the needle and try." 
 
 Harry had little doubt that he should 
 succeed, if he might be allowed to try, be- 
 cause he had most carefully observed all 
 his mother did ; he had watched her hand 
 under the frame, and had seen, as he said, 
 how, by a little quick motion, she hung 
 the cotton or silk, whichever it was, over 
 the hook of the needle, and then pulled 
 both up together through the muslin, ex- 
 actly through the middle of the last link, 
 and then dragged on a new loop, with a 
 little twitch and twist; and down again 
 with the needle. 
 
 "Well observed, and accurately described, 
 I grant," said his mother; "you are perfect 
 in the theoiy, but now for the practice.*' 
 
 She put the tambour needle into his 
 hand, the feeling of which he liked par- 
 
181 
 
 ticularly, because its ivory handle was as 
 large as a pencil case, and something fit 
 for a man to hold. 
 
 " Now we shall see how the man will 
 work tambour work/' said Lucy. " Aye, 
 down goes the needle, pop through the 
 muslin, easily enough ; but now get it up 
 again, and the silk with it, if you please 
 and can." 
 
 Harry turned the ivoiy handle to this 
 side and to that, and leaned it this way 
 and that way, and twisted and double- 
 twisted the silk on the hook beneath ; and 
 twitched, and plucked, and pulled in vain, 
 and came to ^' Pooh !" and *' Pshaw !" and 
 ^^ Do not look at me, pray. I cannot do it 
 if you look at me." 
 
 " Nor if we do not look at you," said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " I have done it !" said he, dragging up 
 the needle by main force, and making a 
 hole in the muslin through which he 
 hauled it. 
 
 '' Oh, Harry ! what a hole !" 
 
 " I do not know how it happened," said 
 Harry, " but the needle is up at any rate, 
 
182 
 
 and the loop with it ; and I have one link 
 of the chain, what you call one stitch, and 
 now for the next, which you see I will do 
 better." 
 
 He tried again, but the hole made it im- 
 possible ; he pulled out his first, his only 
 stitch, and tried again in a fresh corner. 
 Nothing ever did try his patience, or, as 
 he thought, nothing ever did try human 
 patience so much. But, by taking thought, 
 he did get the needle and the loop safe 
 through this time without tearing the 
 muslin. He persevered, and in a quarter 
 of an hour had really worked a quar- 
 ter of an inch of chain, all crooked, 
 dragged out, short and long links of va- 
 rious sizes. Sad chain-stitch, as Lucy 
 called it, but still she could not deny that he 
 had done it. His fingers were so hot that 
 he spread them out to cool, and groaned, 
 and took breath, as his father said a coal 
 porter might do, after setting down the 
 heaviest load. 
 
 His father next took the needle in hand, 
 with a theory as perfect, with somewhat 
 more diffidence, but with little better sue- 
 
183 
 
 cess. There was a knack in it, which could 
 be learned only by practice. But the gen- 
 tlemen talked very learnedly to each other 
 about it, and agreed that their perfect theory 
 had helped, would help, or should have 
 helped, them very much. 
 
 " But how wonderfully quickly my mo- 
 ther does it,"' said Harry. " Do it again, 
 mamma, pray. How can you go on so 
 quickly with the work ? " 
 
 " You think I go on quickly," said his 
 mother, " but all that I could do in a dav 
 could be done by a machine, Harry, in an 
 hour. And by what machine, do you think ? 
 By your dear steam engine ! This is a use 
 for it of which you never thought." 
 
 '"'' Is it possible?" cried Harry. 
 
 '^ Can these ms and outs^ and all this 
 delicate work, and these pointed leaves, 
 be all done by a steam engine?" said Lucy. 
 
 *' A huge steam engine !" said Harry. 
 
 " Mamma, how I should like to see it at 
 work, doing the tambour work," said Lucy. 
 
 " Perhaps I shall be able to show it to 
 you, my dear," said their father. 
 
184 
 
 *' And soon/' whispered Lucy to her 
 brother. 
 
 *'What can you mean ?" said Harry. " I 
 heard you say, aiul soon, over and over 
 again." 
 
 " My dear, did not you hear the letter, 
 and all papa and mamma were saying 
 about it?" said Lucy. 
 
 " Not I," said Harry. 
 
 '* You were sitting at the tea-table all 
 the time, beside me," said Lucy. 
 
 " Very likely," said Harry ; " I did not 
 hear a word that was said." 
 
 " What could you be thinking of?" said 
 Lucy. 
 
 " I do not know," answered Harry. " Of 
 a bell crank, I believe. When I saw mam- 
 ma pull the bell cord, I thought I would 
 show you the bell crank in the passage to- 
 morrow, and explain by that the crank 
 motion in the steam engine." 
 
 " How full your head must be of this 
 steam engine," said Lucy. 
 
 *' And of you, Lucy, my dear; I was 
 thinking of something to show to you." 
 
185 
 
 *' Thank you," said Lucy; " then I will 
 now tell you all that I heard, that you did 
 not hear. The letter was papa's answer to 
 Sir Something Somebody, the man, the 
 gentleman, husband to the lady wdio told 
 of the shipwreck, when she called here the 
 morning- that I spotted my gown wdth the 
 dirty water from the pump and pond." 
 
 "But never mind that now,'' said Harry; 
 " get on, my dear, I want to hear w^hat is 
 to come." 
 
 " Papa's letter was to thank that gentle- 
 man for the touble he has taken in looking- 
 for a house somewhere, a great way off, by 
 the sea-shore." 
 
 " And why did papa thank him for 
 that?" said Harry. 
 
 " My dear Hany, you are so slow in 
 understanding," said Lucy. " The house 
 is to be for papa and mamma; and if tliere 
 is but room enough in it for us we are 
 to go with them." 
 
 " You do not say so !" cried Harry, start- 
 ing upright with joy. 
 
 " I do say so. I heard it with these ears, 
 
186 
 
 and veiy good ears they are," said Lucy ; 
 " and papa told me I might hear. His 
 letter said, towards the end of it, ' I hope 
 there may be two little rooms for Harry 
 and Lucy, their mother and I wish to have 
 them with us.'" 
 
 " How kind ! Oh ! any sort of little 
 rooms — any little dens would do," said 
 Harry. " I could sleep in a drawer — in 
 a nutshell ! Could not you, Lucy?" 
 
 " To be sure," said Lucy. " But if they 
 cannot in any way find room for us, we are 
 to be left with my uncle." 
 
 " Oh !" cried Harry, uttering something 
 like a groan, " I hope we shall not be left 
 with my uncle, though in general I like to 
 be with him very much ; but I never went 
 a journey, a long journey, and with papa 
 and mamma ! Lucy, think how delightful 
 it would be ! to see mountains, and go 
 up them with my portable barometer." 
 
 " And to be by the sea side," said Lucy. 
 " I never saw the sea, and I shall pick up 
 shells by the sea shore — beautiful shells, 
 and seaweed, and sea urchins; and we 
 
187 
 shall live in a • cottao-e. Oh ! think of 
 
 57 
 
 livins: in a cottao^e 
 
 " And we shall see a steam boat, and a 
 steam engine," cried Harry ; " now I un- 
 derstand it all. But remember, it is not 
 certain yet that we are to go, Lucy. I will 
 not think of it any more, lest we should be 
 disappointed at last." 
 
 '^ Joy ! joy! joy! for you, Harry; joy for 
 botVof us ! " cried Lucy. " The great black 
 trunk, and the little black trunk, and the 
 seat-boxes, and the carpet bag, are coming 
 down from the garret to mamma s dressing- 
 room. Packing up is beginning, and we 
 are to go." 
 
 " We ! But are you certain, Lucy? How 
 do you know," said Harry; '' I should not 
 like to be disappointed, my dear." 
 
 "Who would?" said Lucy. "But no 
 danger, my dear Harry; I heard the answer 
 to papa s letter, and it says that there is 
 room for us. Only, that one of us must be 
 
188 
 
 put in a very little closet, which can just 
 hold a bed and a chair." 
 
 " I do not care how small it is, if I can 
 but be crammed into it," cried Harry. 
 
 " Nor do I," said Lucy; " I can sleep 
 on a sofa, or anywhere, so that we may 
 both go." 
 
 '^ If we do not both go, there will be no 
 joy," said Harry. 
 
 "But I tell you we shall both go. Mam- 
 ma says she can manage it. They are to 
 set out the day after to-morrow, at six o'clock 
 in the morning. And I asked mamma," 
 continued Lucy, "if I might pack up your 
 things and mine to-day, in the little black 
 trunk. She says I may, if I can ; only she 
 is afraid I cannot do it well enough ; but I 
 think I can. Bring me directly, Hariy, to 
 the dressing room, all the things you want 
 to take with you, and I will get all mine in 
 a minute." 
 
 Presently two great heaps appeared on 
 the dressing-room floor. 
 
 "There are all my goods," said Harry, 
 pointing to one heap. "All these must go." 
 
189 
 
 "And here are mine; I hope they will 
 all go in," said Lucy, looking doubtfully at 
 the little black trunk, which stood between 
 them. 
 
 Harry, pressing his hand down on Lucy's 
 heap, observed, that " they could be 
 squeezed almost to nothing. Cram my 
 things in any way," said he, "I do not 
 care how, so that they go — only make 
 haste — I will go and finish my Latin les- 
 sons, and be back by the time you are 
 ready to lock the trunk. Ram my things 
 any way, my dear," repeated he, as he left 
 the room. 
 
 " Mamma is to see how the trunk is 
 packed, when it is finished," said Lucy, 
 " and I must do it well." 
 
 She packed, and packed, and squeezed, 
 and crammed, and rammed, but in vain; 
 she could not get in above half of these 
 things. 
 
 Then she took out of the trunk all she 
 had put in, and by her mother's advice 
 began to sort her brother's and her own 
 into two classes, of ?iecessaries, and umw- 
 
190 
 
 cessaries. By this operatioiij her brother's 
 heap was diminished above two-thirds, and 
 her own nearly half. When Harry returned, 
 he was not at all contented with her ar- 
 rangement; and, to satisfy him, she gave up 
 several of her books, and reduced her por- 
 tion to exactly the same size as his. 
 Harry left her to pack the tiTink ; and this 
 time, having listened to her mother's advice, 
 to lay each thing, as she put it in, as flat as 
 possible, and to leave no holes or hollows, 
 she succeeded in putting in all things 
 necessary. There was one luxury of her 
 own, wTiich she much desired to carry. It 
 was a pasteboard tray, that was made for 
 holding shells. She emptied out all its 
 contents, that she might fill it with a new 
 collection from the sea shore. To her 
 great satisfaction, there appeared just room 
 for it, at the top, in the arched lid of the 
 trunk. 
 
 Her mother was called to see how easily 
 it locked, and she examined the packing, 
 and pronounced, that it was as well done 
 as could be expected from so young a 
 
191 
 
 packer. She ran to report her success to 
 Harry, and to summon him to see how 
 nicely her shell tray lay at the top of all the 
 things, fitting under the arched roof of the 
 trunk. She met him coming up stairs with 
 a huge book, as she thought, under his 
 arm ; he asked eagerly if she had finished 
 packing the trunk. 
 
 '' Quite finished," said she ; " come and 
 look at it, and you shall lock it yourself." 
 
 Harry looked disappointed, and said, that 
 he was very sorry the trunk was quite full, 
 because he had found something else to put 
 in, which he wished particularly to carry 
 with him, and his father had just told him 
 that it must not go loose in the carriage. 
 
 "What is it?" said Lucy: "fetch it; if 
 it is not very large, perhaps I can squeeze 
 it m. 
 
 Harry, half ashamed to ask the ques- 
 tion, said, " Could you get in what I have 
 here under my arm ? " 
 
 " This immense quarto book, Harr}^! 
 Impossible ! " cried Lucy. " It is as large 
 as half the whole trunk." 
 
192 
 
 " It is only a false book, my dear," said 
 Harry. 
 
 " False or true, that does not make it 
 less," said Lucy. 
 
 ''But, as it opens," said Harry, " and has 
 an almost empty inside, it will hold a great 
 quantity. It will take up scarcely any 
 room in the trunk, only the thickness of its 
 own sides, and they are of very thin wood 
 covered with paper. Do, my dear Lucy, 
 try if you can get it in. It is a camera 
 obscura, which my uncle has just given to 
 me. 
 
 '' Indeed !" said Lucy. "Well, my dear, 
 I will try my very best." 
 
 But, on opening the false book, she ob- 
 served that it was not nearly empty, that 
 there was some apparatus withinside of it, 
 which took up a gi-eat deal of room. She 
 saw especially a glass, which she was 
 afraid would be broken, if she put any 
 thing withinside. He urged her, however, 
 to try. If it were packed with soft things, 
 such as her frocks, all would be safe. '' If 
 we can but carry the camera obscura with 
 
193 
 
 us," said he, ^' when we get to any pretty 
 country, and to the cottage by the sea side, 
 we shall see such beautiful landscapes in 
 it, and the boats and ships sailing. Oh ! do 
 Lucy, contrive to carry it." 
 
 " I will give up my shell tray," cried 
 Lucy, '^and then I can make room for it 
 perhaps." 
 
 " There is a dear good girl," said Harry. 
 
 She ran, and he followed her to the 
 trunk. He saw how nicely the tray fitted, 
 and he saw her take it out, and put it 
 quite away ; he heard a little sigh as she 
 locked the closet door upon it, after put- 
 ting it out of sight. 
 
 " My dear Lucy," said he, '^ I cannot 
 bear that you should give up your tray; I 
 dare say you wish to carry that and your 
 shells, as much as I wish for my camera 
 obscura." 
 
 " Never mind," said Lucy. 
 
 " But I do mind, and the more because 
 you do not," said Harry. 
 
 " But I will tell you why you need not 
 care so much, Harry," said Lucy; " I can 
 
 VOL. I. K 
 
194 
 
 make another tray of pasteboard easily, 
 when we get to our journey's end, and that 
 will be time enough for my shells at the 
 sea shore; but you, Harry, could not make 
 a camera obscura." 
 
 ^^Very true," said Harry; " thank you. 
 But you have all to unpack, which you 
 had packed so neatly." 
 
 " Never mind," repeated Lucy, " if I 
 can but get it in." 
 
 "You need not unpack to the bottom: 
 stop my dear," said Harry. "The camera 
 obscura is only about one-third of the depth 
 of the trunk." 
 
 In it went, and there was a little space 
 at its ends, and beyond its breadth, into 
 which things could be crammed, and should 
 be crammed, as Harry observed, to keep it 
 tight. The greatest trial of Lucy's pa- 
 tience, was his standing by all the time she 
 was repacking, advising all the while, and 
 saying, as she put in each thing, " That 
 will not go there," or " This would fit 
 better," &c. After she had, to the best of 
 her skill, repacked the trunk, there re- 
 
195 
 
 mained on the floor a new jacket and 
 trowsers of Harry's. The jacket, too, was 
 covered in front with innumerable hard 
 sugar-loaved shaped buttons, which took 
 up a terrible quantity of room, and which 
 could not be compressed. Harry would 
 have found an easy remedy, by leaving 
 jacket and trowsers and all behind. He 
 thought he could do perfectly well without 
 them. So did not his mother; upon ap- 
 peal to her, she decided that they must 
 go. What was to be done? Harry, though 
 ' it would give Lucy a great deal of trouble, 
 thouo^ht he saw how it could be manaofed. 
 " I do not mind the trouble," said Lucy, 
 " if I can succeed at last ; but I think it is 
 really downright impossible to get more 
 into that trunk, without breaking the hinges 
 in squeezing it down." 
 
 Harry suggested, that if Lucy would 
 unpack the whole trunk, and put the 
 camera obscura at the bottom, perhaps she 
 could get in more, because his jacket, with 
 its hard buttons, might then lie at the top, 
 as her tray had lain, under the curve of the 
 
 k2 
 
196 
 
 top of the trunk: by having the flat box 
 uppermost, some of that space he thought 
 was lost. 
 
 Lucy was not quite clear that he was 
 right ; but, however, she, in a most oblig- 
 ing manner, began to unpack the trunk 
 again, and said she would try it his way. 
 
 All of any age, who have a good opinion 
 of their own powers of packing; and who 
 has not? will give Lucy more credit for 
 this than for all the rest. She gave up her 
 own opinion, and repacked upon her bro- 
 ther's suggestion, with as much zeal and 
 alacrity as if it had been an idea of her 
 own. We are happy to state, that this 
 time she succeeded in putting in what was 
 required, camera obscura, jacket, trowsers, 
 and all, to Harry's joy and admiration. 
 
 Her mother was pleased. 
 
 ^' My dear little girl," said she, " I am 
 glad to see, not only that you are good- 
 natured to your brother, of that I did not 
 doubt; but I am glad to perceive, that 
 you are good-humoured too. Good tem- 
 per is necessary, even to the most good- 
 
197 
 
 natured people. I have often seen good- 
 natured people more ready to make great 
 sacrifices than little ones for their friends ; 
 but the little ones are most frequently 
 wanted, especially from women, almost 
 every day of their lives. And if they 
 make these in a good humoured, oblig- 
 ing manner, as you, Lucy, did just now, 
 they will be beloved, and, as far as they 
 can, will make the friends they live with 
 happy." 
 
 " Yes, mamma," said Lucy, " as you do. 
 You came into my head when I was un- 
 packing the trunk for Harry. I recollected 
 your unpacking the great trunk one night 
 at Coventry, when the maid was out, and 
 you were tired to death ; and aunt Pierre- 
 point wanted something, which she said 
 was at the bottom of the tmnk : and it was 
 not there after all. Mamma, I recollect 
 another thing: one day, when you gave up 
 going to Warwick Castle, which I know you 
 wished very much to see. Well, mamma, 
 on this journey, which we are going to take, 
 you shall see, that if I have any trials, I 
 
198 
 
 will be as good — I mean in proportion," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 Harry at this moment returned to the 
 room with their hygrometer, and its regis- 
 ter, in his hand; he told Lucy, that he 
 thought it would be useless for them to 
 keep the register while they were travel- 
 ling, as they should change every day to 
 different parts of England, and it was a 
 register of the weather in one place that 
 was required. Lucy was glad he had 
 found out that it would be useless : she was 
 sure that it would have been impossible for 
 them to keep it, while on their journey ; 
 and she felt relieved from a great responsi- 
 bility, when Harry determined to leave it 
 with their uncle, till their return. Lucy 
 further observed, that it would also be im- 
 possible, she feared, to go on regularly 
 with Harry in his course of scientific les- 
 sons, for which she was really sorry, though 
 the pleasures of travelling, she acknow- 
 ledged, might make up for this inter- 
 ruption. 
 
 "Yes," said Harry, ''that is true; we 
 
199 
 
 must give up our regular lessons till we 
 come back; but, as papa has just been 
 telling me, it will do us both a great deal 
 of good, and me in particular, to see new 
 things." 
 
 "Delightful!" said Lucy; "and thank 
 you, papa, and thank you, mamma, for 
 thinking of such a pleasant way of doing 
 us good." 
 
 At six o'clock in the morning, Harry and 
 Lucy were seated opposite to their father 
 and mother, in an open carriage ; bags, 
 books, parcels, nicely packed in, and Har- 
 ry's portable barometer snug beside him. 
 " Drive on." 
 
 The young travellers stood holding by 
 somethmg no doubt, according to the ever 
 repeated and never-to-be- too-often-repeated 
 counsel. They looked from side to side 
 as they passed, bidding good-bye to each 
 well known object, half sorry to leave home, 
 yet glad to go on to something new. It 
 
200 
 
 was a fine morning, the sun shining, the 
 air fresh, and 
 
 tt 
 
 Herb, tree, fruit, and flower, 
 
 Glistering with dew." 
 
 Their way led through a lane, the hedges 
 on each side full of honey-suckles, with 
 white and pink bind- weed straggling above, 
 about, and underneath. The ground under 
 the hedo;es was covered with wild flowers 
 of many colours; abundance of that most 
 delicate weed, if weed it should be called, 
 which paints the banks with blue, well 
 known to all the world by one name or 
 other; to the unlearned as speedwell, to the 
 learned as vei^onica chamcedrys ; there was 
 also abundance of that erect plant, with its 
 spire of crimson bells, spotted or plain, by 
 peasants fox-glove^ by botanists digitalis 
 called, valued by the old as a cure for the 
 dropsy, and loved by the young, for the 
 loud pop ! pop ! pop ! which in skilful 
 hands can be made by its flowers. Harry 
 asked Lucy if she knew why the fox-glove 
 is called digitalis. 
 
 "No," said Lucy, "why?" 
 
201 
 
 " Because digit ale is the Latin for a 
 fino'er of a glove," said Harry. 
 
 " And the shape of these bells is very 
 like the finger of a glove," said Lucy ; " but 
 why/b^^-glove? foxes do not wear gloves." 
 
 Their father said, that perhaps it might 
 have been called so from growing in the 
 haunts of foxes. 
 
 When they came to the end of the lane, 
 and the road opened to the view of freshly 
 mown meadows, and extensive com fields, 
 Lucy exclaimed, 
 
 "Look! look! Harry, at the gossamer 
 glittering in the sun, all over that field, as 
 far as we can see. Do you see it weaving 
 up and down with every breath of wind. 
 Pray, mamma, look at this immense cobweb 
 net, all spangled with dew. Is it not 
 beautiful, most beautiful, Harry?" 
 
 Harry answered, ''Yes;" but it was ayes 
 uttered in a cold tone, which did not satisfy 
 Lucy. Yet he looked at the gossamer 
 earnestly. But he was always more cu- 
 rious about the causes of whatever he saw, 
 than pleased by their appearance. While 
 
 K 5 
 
202 
 
 Lucy had been admiring the glittering, 
 floating, waving net, Harry had been con- 
 sidering how, or by what this net was 
 made. Lucy said, that in her favourite 
 book of insects ^, and in other books, she 
 had read something about gossamer. He 
 begged she would tell him all she knew 
 of it directly. 
 
 And as fast as she could she told him, 
 that all these shining threads are made 
 by a very small insect, the garden spider, 
 who, like other spiders, can throw out from 
 their bodies a sort of glutinous substance, 
 which hardens in the air. Some say, that 
 the spider leaves the threads behind him, 
 as he darts throuo^h the air in search of 
 food. Others say, that he has the power 
 of throwing it out before him, and that it 
 catches upon the blades of grass, or on the 
 -rough edges of leaves and bushes, and then 
 being pulled tight by the animal, forms as 
 it were a bridge, or road in the air, for 
 him to pass from place to place. He has 
 been called by some people the flying 
 * Dialogues on Entomology, Rees' Cyclopedia. 
 
203 
 
 spider, and the threads are called air 
 threads, and sometimes these are seen 
 floating o.ver head, and sometimes they are 
 borne down by the weight of the dew, and 
 then caught on the bushes. Harry asked if 
 Lucy ever saw the spider throw out or leave 
 behind him these air threads? 
 
 She had not seen it herself, but she 
 remembered, that one man in particular, 
 who wrote about the flying spider, de- 
 clared that he one day saw him throw 
 out from his body this substance, and saw 
 him afterwards mount and ride away 
 upon it. 
 
 Exact Harry was preparing to question 
 whether the flying spider flew, or crept, or 
 rode, walked or darted upon the gossamer, 
 or whether he moved of his own free will, 
 or was blown, or borne away by the wind. 
 But Lucy, too quick for his questions, 
 hastened to tell him something more, that 
 she had read of another insect, called the 
 silk spider, who spins silk, which is almost 
 as fine, some say finer, than that of the 
 silk- worm. A pair of stockings were actu- 
 
204 
 
 ally made of the spider-silk. They were 
 presented, as Lucy assured him, to the 
 French Academy of Sciences, and were 
 much admired. Harry's attention became 
 more respectful, when he heard of the 
 Academy of Sciences. 
 
 " I was thinking," said he, " that great 
 use might be made of all that gossamer, if 
 it could be spun and woven." 
 
 " That has been thought of often," said 
 Lucy ; " people, at the time the stockings 
 were made, hoped that the spider would 
 do as well as the silk-worm ; and they set 
 the spiders at work in paper cases made 
 on purpose, but after they had been kept 
 many months spinning in their paper cells,, 
 their work was measured, and it was 
 found, that nearly three hundred pf the 
 hardest working spiders cannot produce 
 as much silk in the same time as one good 
 active silk- worm." 
 
 Still Harry contended, that, since there 
 are so many spiders, the great numbers 
 might make up for the little they do ; and 
 as we have them always ready, how much 
 
205 
 
 better it would be to set them properly to 
 work, than to brush them and their 
 cobwebs away, or to crush them to 
 death. 
 
 To this Lucy replied, that the common 
 house spider, who is, or ought to be, 
 brushed away, is not the silk spinner ; that 
 the silk spinners were not as common as 
 Harry imagined. " Besides, many faults," 
 continued she, *' are found with their way 
 of working ; they break their threads, or 
 spin them only in short pieces, so that 
 their silk cannot be wound, it can only be 
 spun, and the reeling takes off its lustre. 
 This want of lustre was complained of in 
 the famous pair of spider-silk stockings, 
 presented to the French Academy. On 
 the contrary, the silk- worm spins her silk 
 without breaking ; she winds it round and 
 round into cocoons, which can be easily 
 unwound by a careful person. What 
 length, Harry, do you think the silk- worm 
 can spin without breaking ? " 
 
 Harry was no judge of spinning; but 
 since he must guess, he would say about 
 
206 
 
 as long as the field over which the gos- 
 samer spread — perhaps about a quarter 
 of a mile. 
 
 He did not think it possible, but he said 
 it on purpose to guess something provok- 
 ingly beyond what he supposed any silk- 
 worm could do. 
 
 " A quarter of a mile !" repeated Lucy, 
 " that is a good large guess ; but you must 
 know, that a silk-worm can spin without 
 breaking as much as when unwound is six 
 miles long ! and, if she is not lazy, can do 
 this in nine days ! Believe it or not, 
 Harry, as you please ; but I assure you it 
 is true. And what spider ever did as 
 much?" 
 
 Harry looked as if he wished to urge 
 something more in favour of the spiders, 
 but had nothing else to say, except that 
 still he did not doubt that some way 
 would be invented of making them useful. 
 
 " Oh ! my dear," exclaimed Lucy, " I 
 forget my very best argument; spiders 
 can never work together, like good silk- 
 worms, because they quarrel and fight. 
 
207 
 
 and eat up one another. My insect book 
 says, that, of I do not know how many, 
 above forty or fifty, that were shut up 
 together in one room, with plenty of flies 
 and pith of quills, and all the delicacies 
 they like, only two of them were, at the 
 end of some days, found alive ; and you 
 know it would be impossible to give each 
 of them a separate house ; so there is an 
 end of the matter." 
 
 "An end of the matter indeed!" said 
 Harry ; "I should never have thought of 
 having any thing to do with them, if you 
 had told me at first that they eat one ano- 
 ther. Well, Lucy," continued Harry, 
 " thanks to you and your insect books, 
 we have had a great deal of diversion out 
 of that field of gossamer." 
 
 " I feel much more pleasure in looking 
 at things," said Lucy, '' when I know 
 something about them, even if it is ever 
 so little." 
 
 " And then there is the hope of tJw 
 grand thing that we are to see by and by," 
 
208 
 
 said Harry. " Papa, when do you think 
 we shall see a steam engine ? " 
 
 " Very soon, my dear," said his father. 
 " We are now in Lancashire, where there 
 are many manufactories, in which the ma- 
 chinery is worked by steam engines. I 
 hope, that in the town in which we are to 
 breakfast, I shall be able to show you 
 the grand thing, as you call it, Harry." 
 
 "To day! this morning!" exclaimed 
 Lucy. 
 
 Harry, in grave delight, rose from his 
 seat to return his very best thanks ; and, 
 in an uncommonly emphatic tone, began 
 with — 
 
 " I am very much obliged to you in- 
 deed^ father." 
 
 But while he was pronouncing this in 
 his sober manner, a branch of a tree under 
 which they were going caught his hat, 
 and can'ied it off. A little thing could 
 make Lucy laugh before breakfast, when 
 she was weak and hungry ; and long after 
 the hat had been regained and replaced. 
 
209 
 
 and after the accident was forgotten by 
 their father and mother, who were quietly 
 reading, Lucy shook with unextinguish- 
 able laughter, even till they came in sight 
 of the town where they were to breakfast. 
 
 After breakfast they walked with their 
 father and mother through the town, to 
 the place where they were to see a steam 
 engine. A variety of objects caught Lucy's 
 attention as they walked through the busy 
 streets ; but Harry was so intent upon 
 what he expected to see at the end of his 
 walk, that he did not look either to the 
 right or the left as he passed. 
 
 Much as his expectations had been 
 raised, he was not disappointed when he 
 came to the reality. The ease and silence 
 with which the hug^e beam of the steam 
 engine moved up and down, struck him 
 with admiration, and he stood for some 
 time satisfied with watching^ its uniform 
 motion. Next, he enjoyed the pleasure 
 of recognizing each part of the great ma- 
 chinery that he had seen in the engrav- 
 
210 
 
 ings which he had studied, and of which 
 he had understood the descriptions. 
 
 Lucy could not immediately compre- 
 hend what she saw ; she could not extend 
 her ideas from the small scale of the 
 engravings to the great size of the ma- 
 chine, which she now beheld. Another 
 difficulty occurred : she could nojt at one 
 view take in all the parts : she did not 
 know where to look for the boiler and the 
 cylinder, and all the innumerable small 
 'pipes puzzled her. However, with her 
 father's assistance, she by degrees made 
 out the principal parts, as they were seen 
 in different stages of the building, for all 
 could not be seen at once. 
 
 Good-natured Harry delayed to gratify 
 his own curiosity till Lucy was quite clear 
 in every thing she wished to understand : 
 then he began to question his father. He 
 wanted to know what work this steam- 
 engine was doing. He heard some sounds, 
 like the working of machinery, and he 
 wished to see what was doing. The 
 
211 
 
 guide, who had admitted them, now 
 threw open a door, and they saw a very- 
 large apartment, full of whirling, whir- 
 ring machinery, rows of spindles full of 
 cotton, like the spindles of a spinning- 
 wheel, standing upright in frames, which 
 reached nearly across the room. Each 
 spindle being supplied by a long line of 
 untwisted cotton, from spools, or bobbins, 
 above. Between each row stood a wo- 
 man, or child, watching the work, and 
 keeping the machinery clean. 
 
 " This is one of Arkwright's cotton 
 mills," said the guide. *' All this ma- 
 chinery is kept at work by this steam 
 engine ; and two other rooms full of 
 cotton-frames, which you may see, if you 
 please, above and below stairs." 
 
 Lucy uttered an exclamation of sur- 
 prise. Harry was silent with admiration. 
 Turnino; back towards the steam eng-ine, 
 he looked about to find where and how 
 the motion was communicated from the 
 engine to the spinning machinery. His 
 
212 
 
 father, who guessed what he was looking 
 for, showed him where the shaft was car- 
 ried through the wall. 
 
 Harry had once seen a cotton manu- 
 factory, long ago ; but he had only a 
 confused remembrance of whirling spools, 
 and noise, and dust. Here, as he ob- 
 served, there was scarcely any dust, and 
 but little noise. He was eaQ:er to examine 
 and anxious to understand all he saw; 
 but while he was watching them, the 
 quick motion of the spinning spindles 
 Suddenly ceased, and, looking back to 
 the steam engine, he saw the huge beam 
 descending, with a soft, seemingly ex- 
 piring motion. 
 
 " What is the matter ? " cried Harry. 
 
 " Nothing, master," answered the guide, 
 smiling at his alarm. " Nothing, but that 
 it is our dinner time. We stop the en- 
 gine, and all the machines leave off work- 
 ing for an hour, till we come back and 
 set the engine going again." 
 
 " And is it possible, that the steam- 
 
213 
 
 engine, and all these machines, can be 
 stopped so soon and so easily?" cried 
 Harry. 
 
 The man, pleased by the great interest 
 which he saw that Harry felt, showed 
 him how the whole was stopped, by 
 closing the valves of the cylinder, and 
 how the steam was let off, after the en- 
 gine had been stopped. 
 
 The women and children were now 
 clearing out of the large room, to go to 
 their dinners, and in a few minutes the 
 apartment was emptied of human crea- 
 tures, and all was rest and silence. Harry 
 looked blank. He was afraid that he 
 should not see, hear, or learn any thing 
 more; and he told Lucy, he thought it 
 very unlucky that they had come at the 
 workmen's hour of dinner. But, on the 
 contrary, this proved a happy circum- 
 stance ; for their father asked and ob- 
 tained permission to stay during this 
 quiet hour in the cotton mill, and he 
 made use of this time to explain it, and 
 to give them some account of the begin- 
 
214 
 
 ning and progress of the invention, and of 
 its improvement. 
 
 " Probably all spinning," said he, " was 
 originally done as it is now in the East, 
 and in some of the southern parts of 
 Europe, by holding in the left hand some- 
 thing like a distaff, with the material to 
 be spun wrapped round it. With the right 
 hand the spinner draws out the fibres of 
 this material, whatever it may be, from 
 the distaff, as in common spinning. It is 
 twisted by a spool or spindle, hanging at 
 the end of the thread, the spool being 
 previously twirled by the finger and thumb. 
 When the motion ceases or diminishes, so 
 as not to be sufficient to twist the thread, 
 what is spun is wound upon the spool, and 
 the twirling is renewed. This is a simple 
 but tedious mode of spinning. By degrees 
 it was improved, and that ingenious con- 
 trivance, the spinning-wheel, such as that 
 with which you are well acquainted, Lucy, 
 was brought into use in England for spin- 
 ning flax. For spinning wool, you know, a 
 different sort of machine is used." 
 
215 
 
 " Yes," said Lacy, " I recollect the large 
 high wheel, with which I saw a woman 
 spinning wool." 
 
 '^ Now let us go on to the spinning of 
 cotton," said her father, " and the machi- 
 nery for that purpose. To understand and 
 follow the history of any invention, the first 
 thing necessary is to have a clear idea of 
 what is required to be done, and of the 
 difficulties that are to be conquered. When 
 cotton is taken out of the bale, or large 
 parcel in which it is brought from the In- 
 dies, it is generally in hard lumps, some- 
 times stringy. To prepare it for carding, 
 it is beaten with sticks to loosen it, other- 
 wise it would break or spoil the teeth 
 of the cards. It is then carded, the sole 
 object of which is to separate all the fibres 
 from each other : cards, something like those 
 you have seen used in carding common 
 wool, are employed for this purpose. The 
 cotton is taken from the card in the form 
 of a roll or tail, of about a foot long. For- 
 merly, in the old way of spinning, the next 
 operation was to attach the end of this roll 
 
216 
 
 to a wooden spindle, placed horizontally, 
 which could be turned round by a large 
 wheel. The spinner gave the wheel a 
 twirl, and immediately carrying back her 
 hand, in which she held the other end of 
 the roll, the cotton was lengthened, sup- 
 pose from one foot to five — and at the 
 same time it was twisted ; the direction in 
 which the hand moved had always a cer- 
 tain inclination to the spindle, so that the 
 thread might slip off, over the end of the 
 spindle, at every revolution. By this 
 means it is twisted." 
 
 '* Yes," said Lucy, *' I understand this ; 
 I have seen it in spinning common wool." 
 
 " Very well, this is called long-wheel 
 spinning,'^ continued her father. "But it 
 occurred to a poor weaver, of the name of 
 Hargrave, that he could improve this me- 
 thod. As but little strength was employed 
 in drawing out the cotton thread, or in 
 turning the spindle which twisted it, he 
 perceived, that if one woman had ten pair 
 of hands and ten spindles, and could move 
 them at once in the proper direction in 
 
217 
 
 drawing out the cotton thread, she could 
 spin ten times as much in the same 
 time." 
 
 '* Papa," interrupted Lucy, " If the wo- 
 man had had a hundred spindles, and a 
 hundred hands, like Briareus, she might 
 have spun a hundred times as much." 
 
 *^ Not unless she had known how to use 
 her hundred hands," said her father; '' hands 
 without head would do little. But now, 
 without talking of Briareus, how do you 
 think one head contrived to supply the 
 place of many hands ? Hargrave's difficulty 
 was to hold fast and draw out many threads 
 at once, keeping them separate, and pull- 
 ing them evenly, while the spindles were 
 twisting them. To accomplish this pur- 
 pose he took two slips of wood, and cut 
 their edges so that they could lie close to- 
 gether." 
 
 " Like tlie edges of a parallel ruler," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 '' Yes," said her father. " And between 
 the edges of these he held fast the ends of 
 the several rolls of cotton wool, which 
 
 VOL. I. li 
 
/ 
 
 218 • 
 
 were to be drawn out and twisted: the 
 other ends of the rolls, of course, you know, 
 were fastened on the spindles, one on each ; 
 and after they had been drawn out and 
 twisted, the motion of the spindles continu- 
 ing, the thread was wound round upon 
 them. Now suppose the spindles to be 
 set in motion, and that while they are turn- 
 ing he draws his ruler back, then you see 
 each roll of cotton would be drawn out 
 and twisted at once, as if each were spun 
 by a separate hand," 
 
 " I see," said Lucy ; " at least I under- 
 stand." 
 
 '' There are some contrivances neces- 
 sary in doing this, of which I will not 
 describe to you all the particulars, lest I 
 should puzzle you," added her father. 
 
 *' Thank you, papa," said Lucy. " But 
 how did the man set the spindles in mo- 
 tion. You said, suppose they were turning, 
 but you did not tell us how." 
 
 " He placed the spindles perpendicu- 
 larly, side by side, in a row — eight, I 
 think, he tried at first ; and he set them in 
 
219 
 
 motion by means of the large wheel, or 
 lo7ig wheel, as they call it, which his wife 
 used in spinning wool, so that they should 
 all move at once. The wheel had a handle, 
 which w^as turned by his wife, whilst the 
 ruler, which held the cotton rovings, was 
 drawn back, and they were, as he had ex- 
 pected, pulled out and twisted at the same 
 time." 
 
 *' How happy he must have been,'' cried 
 Harrv, '* when he first saw it do! When 
 he saw the eight threads drawn out, and 
 the spindles spinning them all at once ; 
 How I should like to have been him at that 
 instant ! " 
 
 *^ I should have liked to have been in 
 his wife's place at that instant," said Lucy. 
 " How happy she must have been, and his 
 children, if they were standing by looking 
 at it. So it succeeded perfectly?" 
 
 *^ Not so fast, Lucy, my dear ; it suc- 
 ceeded for so much, but far from perfect- 
 ly," said her father. " His first was but a 
 very rude machine, and he had much diffi- 
 culty in bringing it to a state fit for work- 
 
 L 2 
 
220 
 
 ing. Then he advanced from eight to ten, 
 twenty, eighty spindles, and he improved 
 his machine so that it w^as brought into 
 common use, and he called it a Spinning 
 Jenny." 
 
 "A Spinning Jenny! Very right!" 
 cried Lucy, " I suppose his vs^ife's name 
 was Jenny. I hope he made a great deal 
 of money, poor man, to support his family." 
 
 ^' I wonder how he came first to think 
 of this invention," said Harry. 
 
 " It is said," answered his father, "but 
 I am not sure that it is true, that the first 
 idea of it was suggested to Hargrave by 
 an accident : a number of young people 
 were one day assembled at his house, at 
 the hour usually allotted for dinner. They 
 were at play, and they by chance over- 
 turned the wheel at which Hargrave's wife 
 was spinning wool. The thread remained 
 in her hand, and the spindle was then per- 
 pendicular, and the wheel horizontal. The 
 wheel being prevented, by the frame work, 
 from touching the ground, it continued to 
 turn round with the motion which had been 
 
221 
 
 given to it, and kept the spindle in motion. 
 Hargrave's attention was fixed upon it, and 
 it is said that he uttered exclamations of 
 delight, and again and again set the wheel 
 in motion while it lay on the floor, and 
 stood looking at it a long time, the by- 
 standers thinking that he did so only from 
 idleness." 
 
 '' Aye, but he was not idle," said Harry ; 
 " he was at work, inventing, at that mo- 
 ment ; but how did the overturning of the 
 wheel help him ?" 
 
 " Of that part of the story I am not 
 clear," answered Harry's father. " It is said, 
 that Hargrave had made attempts to spin 
 with two spindles, with the common wheel 
 for spinning wool, and that he had tried to 
 use his left hand as well as his right, in 
 drawing out the thread, but that he had 
 always found this attempt ineffectual, on 
 account of the horizontal position of the 
 spindles ; but when he observed them 
 standing perpendicularly in the overturned 
 wheel, he saw this difficulty obviated, and 
 he thought of so placing his spindles." 
 " So then," cried Lucy, " his invention 
 
222 
 
 was made by accident, by the lucky acci- 
 dent of the overturning that spinning wheel. 
 How often and how many inventions are 
 made by accident?" 
 
 " No," said her father; " inventions are 
 never made by accident. To invent is to 
 combine, or put things together for a par- 
 ticular purpose. This, which requires 
 thought, cannot be done by mere chance ; 
 though accident may, and often does, sug- 
 gest the first hint of an invention to an 
 observing mind, or to a mind intent upon 
 accomplishing a particular purpose, and 
 discovers the means that may be used ; 
 as in this instance was the case with 
 Hargrave. How many people have seen 
 spinning wheels overturned, without ever 
 inventing a spinning jenny. But now 
 let me go on to tell you the next im- 
 provement that was made in cotton spin- 
 ning." 
 
 '' What ! did not the spinning jennies 
 do it all perfectly ? " said Lucy. 
 
 '^ No, no, Lucy," said her father ; " you 
 must not be in such a hurry, we cannot 
 come to perfection so soon. The spinning 
 
223 
 
 jennies did only part of what was wanted. 
 The cotton-thread spun by the jenny was 
 found to be rough, spongy, and weak. It 
 could be used only for the woof in weav- 
 ing cotton, the warp could not be made of 
 it The warp was then made of linen- 
 threads, which were strong and smooth.'' 
 
 ''From what did this defect in the cotton 
 spun by the spinning jenny arise?" 
 
 " From the fibres of the cotton not be- 
 ing laid smooth and parallel to each other, 
 while it was drawn out and twisting. In 
 spinning by hand, Lucy, you recollect see- 
 ing the spinner not only draw the thread 
 out, but press and move it at the same time, 
 between her finger and thumb. This 
 smoothed the fibres of the cotton, and 
 kept them parallel with each other. Now 
 this was wanting in the spinning jenny. 
 The motion of the hand in drawing^ out 
 the thread was well imitated by the rulers 
 or clasps, which, holding it fast when 
 drawn back, answered the same purpose ; 
 but the motion of the spinner's finger and 
 
224 
 
 thumb, and the effect produced by it, was 
 to be supplied." 
 
 ''How did Hargrave do that?" said 
 Harry. 
 
 " He did not do it," answered Harry s 
 father; " it was accomplished by another 
 person, Mr. Arkwright, who, like Har- 
 grave, was originally a poor and illiterate 
 man, but who had the habit of observation 
 and the power of invention." 
 
 " Well! how did Arkwright do it," said 
 Harry, eagerly. 
 
 '' By passing the cotton between rollers,*^ 
 said his father. " By passing it succes- 
 sively between three pair of rollers, placed 
 near each other ; the upper roller of each 
 pair is pressed down with different weights. 
 The first pair of rollers, through which the 
 cotton is pressed and passed, turns slowly ; 
 the second faster, and the third more 
 quickly, each with a steady motion. Now 
 suppose, Harry, that the last pair of rollers 
 moved eight times as fast as the first pair, 
 then, eight times more length of cotton 
 
225 
 
 would pass between that pair of rollers, 
 than what had passed between the first 
 pair, consequently the same quantity would 
 be drawn out to eight times the length and 
 eight times the fineness." 
 
 " Very ingenious," said Harry. *' I won- 
 der how Arkwright came to think of pass- 
 ing the cotton between rollers." 
 
 " It is said, Harry," replied his father, 
 " that Arkwright had had frequent oppor- 
 tunities of seeing, in iron works, iron bars 
 drawn out, by being passed between rol- 
 lers, and he afterwards applied this idea to 
 the drawing out of cotton." 
 
 " I am surprised he ever thought of it," 
 said Harry ; " because the fine fibres of 
 cotton wool, and iron bars, are so diflferent." 
 
 " Still there is some likeness," said 
 Lucy, " in the motion of drawing out the 
 thread thinner and thinner, and smoother 
 and smoother. So you see, Harry, there 
 is good sometimes in observing likenesses." 
 
 "What I have said," continued their 
 father, " may give you some idea of the 
 effect of the action of the rollers ; I should 
 
 l5 
 
226 
 
 further tell you, that in the undermost of 
 each pair of rollers were cut fine little 
 grooves, or furrows, along the whole of its 
 surface, to roughen it so as to prevent the 
 cotton from slipping. The upper rollers 
 were covered with leather. The passing 
 the cotton i^ovings between these rollers, 
 pressed together as I have described to 
 you, with different weights, and moving 
 with different velocities, had the same 
 effect upon the cotton as that which is pro- 
 duced by the pressure and motion of the 
 spinner's finger and thumb, smoothing 
 down the loose fibres, laying and keeping 
 them parallel with each other, and at the 
 same time drawing them out so as to make 
 a finer thread." 
 
 " So at last," said Lucy, " Arkwright did 
 by the use of rollers what a woman did 
 at first by the motion of her finger and 
 thumb." 
 
 " Yes," said Harry ; *^ but consider how 
 much more was done in the same time, in 
 one day perhaps, by the rollers, than a wo- 
 man could do in her whole life spinning. 
 
227 
 
 And how difficult, and how very ingenious 
 it was, to imitate by machinery that mo- 
 tion of the finger and thumb. And this 
 was Mr. Arkwright's great invention?" 
 
 " It was," said his father. 
 
 " But what became of the spinning 
 jennies/' said Harry; " were they laid 
 aside when Arkwright made these im- 
 provements, and erected these mills?" 
 
 " The spinning jennies are very much 
 laid aside, I believe,' said his father, " in 
 consequence of the defects which I men- 
 tioned. But for some purposes the cotton 
 they spin is preferable, and for these the 
 jennies are still used."' 
 
 *' Since Arkwright's time, have any 
 great improvements been made, father," 
 said Harry. 
 
 "No improvement has been made in 
 the principle of his mode of spinning, but 
 many in the simplicity and the perfecting 
 of the machinery. The use of steam and 
 steam engines, instead of water and water- 
 wheels, for keeping these mills in motion, 
 is in many places of great importance. 
 
228 
 
 Of the various improvements in the detail 
 of the machinery, I will only mention one 
 to you, an invention made by a Mr. Samuel 
 Crompton." 
 
 "That's right," said Harry. *^ I am glad 
 papa always remembers and tells the name 
 of the inventors." 
 
 " Mr. Crompton observed and joined 
 together much that was essentially useful 
 in Hargrave's spinning jenny, and in Ark- 
 "wright's rollers, or twist frame; and he made 
 a third machine, which combined many of 
 the advantages of the former two, and 
 which is preferred for spinning fine cotton, 
 but is inferior in spinning coarse. This 
 machine is called the mule.'' 
 
 '4 should like to see the mule," said 
 Harry. 
 
 "But you cannot see and understand 
 every thing at once," said his father. 
 
 " 1 hear the workmen coming from din- 
 ner," said Lucy. 
 
 " Now we shall see this cotton-mill of 
 Arkwright's at work," said Harry. 
 
 The guide coming in at this moment, 
 
229 
 
 and hearing the last words Harry said, and 
 the name of Arkwright, began to speak of 
 the immense fortune which Sir Richard had 
 made by his inventions and improvements. 
 
 " Sir Richard! " interrupted HaiTy, 
 "how did he grow into Sir Richard?" 
 
 " The king conferred upon him the ho- 
 nour of knighthood," answered the work- 
 man, and he went on speaking of the fine 
 houses and estates Sir Richard Arkwright 
 and his descendants have purchased. 
 
 " Did you ever hear, sir," said he, " of 
 the birth-day present which Sir Richard's 
 son made to each of his six sons. Each 
 found on his table, on the morning of his 
 birth-day, twenty thousand pounds." 
 
 " Twenty thousand pounds ! Six times 
 twenty," said Lucy : " that is one hundred 
 and twenty thousand pounds! What a 
 sum ! " 
 
 " And all the consequence of one man's 
 invention," said Harry. 
 
 " And industry and perseverance," said 
 his father. "Arkwright had great diffi- 
 culties to struggle with, not only in per- 
 
230 
 
 fecting his contrivance, but in reducing it 
 to practice, and in establishing his right to 
 the invention." 
 
 The workmen were by this time pouring 
 into the room, men, women, and children, 
 and the machinery was set a-going again in 
 a minute or two, and all were busy. Even 
 Lucy, as well as Harry, had some idea of 
 what was doing. They knew the use of 
 the spindles and of the cylinders. With- 
 out being perplexed by the smaller parts 
 of the machinery, they had a complete 
 view of each process that the cotton- 
 wool undergoes, after it is taken out of its 
 pod, till it is manufactured into the finest 
 cotton. 
 
 As they were leaving one of the rooms, 
 the guide showed them a heap of hanks or 
 skeins of cotton yarn, all which, as he told 
 them, had been spun by the mule from a 
 single pound of fine cotton. 
 
 "There are here three hundred and 
 fifty hanks," said he, " and each hank 
 would measure eight hundred and forty 
 yards; and the whole, if stretched out, 
 
231 
 
 would make a thread one hundred and 
 sixty-seven miles in length." 
 
 ^' One hundred and sixty seven miles!" 
 repeated Lucy, " what would your flying 
 spiders say to this, Harry?" 
 
 " Or your silk-worms, Lucy ? " said 
 Harry ; ^' I think your good active best of 
 silk-worms, never spun more than a silk 
 the length of six miles." 
 
 ^'At any rate," said Lucy, **men and 
 women beat spiders and silk-worms both 
 in spinning." 
 
 Her father observed, that the proper 
 object of com.parison between rival spin- 
 ners is, not the length of the thread, but 
 the fineness. "And I apprehend," said 
 he, '^ that either a silk-worm or spiders' 
 thread, is as fine as one fibre of cotton 
 wool ; and the finest thread of cotton must 
 be composed of many fibres." So that, 
 notwithstanding Lucy's exultation in the 
 superiority of men and women spinners 
 over worms and spiders, Harry was com 
 pelled to give judgment in favour of the 
 animals. 
 
232 
 
 '* But their superiority is owing only to 
 instinct, and ours to ingenuity and reason, 
 you know, Harry," said Lucy. " It is no 
 merit of theirs, that they have their mate- 
 rials prepared for them better than we 
 have." 
 
 Here the debate about the spiders and 
 silk-worms was interrupted by the en- 
 trance of a gentleman, who was the prin- 
 cipal proprietor of the cotton manufactory, 
 and the conversation turned upon the pro- 
 digious sale of cotton goods and muslins 
 in different parts of the world, especially 
 in England. 
 
 '^You are aware, madam," said he, 
 turning to Lucy's mother, " that muslins 
 were formerly all made in India; and that 
 it is only thirty or forty years since we 
 first attempted to make them in England, 
 and not till within these few years that we 
 have brought them to their present perfec- 
 tion." 
 
 Lucy's mother was well aware of this ; 
 she said she remembered, when she was a 
 child, seeing some of the first muslin made 
 
233 
 
 in England, and that it was coarse and 
 rough, and looked ill, and wore ill ; and 
 that no one then thought English could 
 ever equal Indian muslins. But now it is 
 difficult for the nicest eye to detect the dif- 
 ference in the appearance and in the wear- 
 ing ; they are as good, if not better. 
 
 Harry's father turned to him, and whis- 
 pered, '^ If you put me in mind, I will tell 
 you some other time by what ingenious and 
 bold contrivance that roughness in the 
 first English muslin, of which your mother 
 complained, was afterwards prevented." 
 
 The gentleman continued speaking, and 
 when Harry heard his voice again he was 
 telling of the immense quantity and value 
 of the muslins now made in England and 
 Scotland. 
 
 " All this we owe," said he, " to our 
 using ingenious machinery, in these coun- 
 tries, instead of doing all by the labour 
 of men's hands, as in India. Perhaps you 
 are not yet aware, sir," said he, turning 
 to Harry's father, *' of the magnitude of 
 the cotton manufacture. Ita machinery 
 
234 
 
 earns for England one thousand pounds 
 every working hour. Forty thousand 
 pounds weight of cotton wool is spun, and 
 in three minutes the length of the thread 
 spun would more than circumscribe the 
 whole earth." 
 
 As this was said, they were passing 
 through an apartment, where Lucy saw a 
 machine for winding the pretty little balls 
 of cotton — she wished to stay to look at it. 
 *' Oh ! papa, may I not look at this?" 
 But her father answered, " No, my 
 dear, you have seen and heard enough — 
 quite enough ; if you were to see more 
 you would confuse what I hope is now 
 clear in your heads. Come away." 
 
 In the evening Lucy acknowledged that 
 she was rather tired, and was glad to rest, 
 and to stay with her mother, who did not 
 wish to go out again. But Harry, boast- 
 ing that he was as fresh as ever, was proud 
 to be allowed to accompany his father, who 
 was going to walk out to see the town. 
 
235 
 
 After passing through several streets, 
 they came to a broad public walk, on a 
 high terrace, shaded with trees, from 
 whence, looking back, they had a fine 
 view of the town by the red light of the 
 setting sun, which beautifully illuminated 
 several windows, especially those of a 
 Gothic church. As Harry was returning 
 through the streets, he regretted that Lucy 
 had not been with them, and he asked his 
 father whether they were to go avv^ay from 
 this town early in the morning, or if he 
 would stay another day ; his father, who, 
 perhaps, was thinking of something else, 
 answered, in an absent manner, ^' I do not 
 know, my dear; that will depend upon 
 circumstances." 
 
 Harry was considering, as he trudged 
 on, what could be meant by " that will 
 depend upon circumstances," when, on 
 turning the corner of the street, his thoughts 
 were stopped, and his eyes struck, with a 
 sudden blaze of lights — gas lights. Harry's 
 admiration lasted in silence the whole 
 
236 
 
 length of the street; when turning into 
 another, still more bright, he exclaimed, 
 
 " It is almost as light as day ! Father, 
 what kind of lights are these, and of what 
 are they made ? " 
 
 His father told him, that they were 
 called gas lights, and that they were made 
 of gas obtained from coal. 
 
 Harry asked, " How is gas different 
 from other flame of candle or fire ?" 
 
 His father told him, that all flame is gas 
 set on fire. " In a common fire, in a candle, 
 or lamp, what you see, and call flame, is 
 gas, which, when set on fire, continues to 
 flame when exposed to the air." 
 
 Harry asked, ** How is gas got out of 
 coal?" 
 
 His father told him, " By the coal 
 being strongly heated in iron vesels called 
 retorts, which have but one opening for the 
 gas to escape from into the reservoir where 
 it is preserved." 
 
 Harry next inquired how the gas gets 
 from the reservoir to the small pipes, so 
 
237 
 
 as to light all the houses in the street, 
 where he saw gas flaming at the windows. 
 
 " Suppose a tumbler to be inverted in a 
 bason of water," said his father, " you 
 know, that as there is air withinside of the 
 tumbler, that air will prevent it from sink- 
 ing in the water." 
 
 " Certainly," said Harry. 
 
 " But you may put weight upon the 
 tumbler, till you compress the air in the 
 inside, and then the water will first rise to 
 supply the place of the compressed air. And 
 what will happen afterwards, Harry ?" 
 
 " I think nothing would happen, father, 
 but that the water in the bason would con- 
 tinue pressing up the air till it had forced 
 it into the smallest space possible." 
 
 " Very true, to the smallest space to 
 which it is possible for the water to com- 
 press it; but the air being compressed, its 
 elasticity continually increases, till it not 
 only resists the pressure of the water, but 
 drives out the water from the tumbler, and 
 raises it in the surrounding bason. Now 
 
238 
 
 suppose one end of a small pipe were 
 introduced under the edge of the tumbler, 
 what would happen?" 
 
 " The compressed air would be forced 
 into the pipe to be sure," said Harry. 
 
 "And if the pipe were open at the 
 other end ?" said his father. 
 
 " The air would go out at the other 
 end," said Harry. 
 
 " And what would happen to the 
 tumbler?" said his father. 
 
 " The tumbler would continue descend- 
 ing till all the air was driven through the 
 pipe," answered Harry. 
 
 " It would so. Now, instead of com- 
 mon air, suppose your tumbler filled with 
 gas, exactly the same thing would take 
 place. This is called a gas holder, and 
 this is the manner in which the gas is con- 
 tinually forced from the reservoir through 
 the pipes." 
 
 " I understand it," said Harry ; '* and 
 I hope you will some time or other show 
 this experiment to Lucy. It would be 
 
239 
 
 very easily done with a glass and 
 bason." 
 
 "- You may show it to her yourself," 
 said his father. 
 
 " Does the gas light immediately of 
 itself, when it comes into the air?" 
 
 " No ; when a person wants to light it 
 he holds a candle to it, and it flames as 
 you see in the open air." 
 
 " Suppose it was to rain, or suppose 
 the wind blew strong," said Harry, " what 
 would become of these lights? Look at 
 these flaring, without any glass round 
 them, in the open window, in this but- 
 cher's shop? Would not they be extin- 
 guished ? " 
 
 " Not by slight rain or wind," said his 
 father. " One great advantage of gas 
 lights is, that they are not easily extin- 
 guished by rain or wind." 
 
 Harry's admiration increasing, the more 
 he heard of their advantages, and con- 
 sidered their convenience, and beautiful 
 brightness, he wondered why people had 
 not thought of using them sooner. And 
 
240 
 
 he asked if this gas had never been known 
 to exist till now. 
 
 His father told him, that it had been 
 long known as what we see in the flame 
 of fire and candles; but that till lately 
 no one had thought of obtaining it in 
 quantities, and bringing it into common 
 use, in the manner in which he now saw 
 it. " I could tell you, Harry, two curious 
 anecdotes, which I heard from a friend." 
 
 " Can you, father?" said Harry. " Then 
 pray do. Will you be so good as to tell 
 them to me now ? " 
 
 " If you will mind where you are going, 
 and not run into the gutter," said his 
 father. 
 
 " About forty years ago, a certain Lord 
 Dundonald had a patent for making what 
 is called coak from coal. Coak is half- 
 burnt coal, such as you have seen used 
 in forges ; to obtain the coak he half- 
 burned the coal, and the tar and gas which 
 were in the coal were, by this process, se- 
 parated. The coak being his only object, the 
 gas was conducted under water many hun^ 
 
241 
 
 dred yards, in large tunnels, in order to 
 condense the tar, and the gas escaped out 
 of a high chimney. How it became lighted 
 my friend said he did not know ; but once 
 lighted, it continued to burn, and the 
 flame illuminated the country for twenty 
 miles round." 
 
 " I wish I had seen it,'' said Harry. 
 " How grand and beautiful it must have 
 looked ! But when people saw this, I won- 
 der no one thought directly of making use 
 of the gas, and of obtaining it in the same 
 way for lamps." 
 
 " It is the more surprising," said his 
 father, " because it was, in fact, a gas ap- 
 paratus, like that at present used, only the 
 gas was suffered to escape and waste it- 
 self." 
 
 " But, father," said Harry, " what was 
 the other anecdote ? " 
 
 " Long before this Lord Dundonald s 
 time, there was a chemist, whose name I 
 do not recollect, who made gas from coal, 
 and stored it in bladders, and frequently 
 
 VOL. I. M 
 
242 
 
 amused his friends by pricking a hole in 
 the bladder, and then applying a light to 
 it. This was 'portable gas, such as people 
 are now beginning to use, only in a differ- 
 ent case." 
 
 " Well, this is more extraordinary still/' 
 said Harry ; " because that gas in the blad- 
 der was in such a convenient form for 
 carrying about ; it is wonderful that neither 
 he, nor any of his friends who saw it, ever 
 thought of making use of it for lamps. I 
 wish I had been by when he showed the 
 bladder, and pricked it, and set fire to 
 the gas. Father, even such a boy as 
 I might have thought of it, might not 
 I?" 
 
 ^' You might, Harry," said his father; 
 " but how few men, to say nothing of boys, 
 observe what they see any day, or every 
 day, or think of what use can be made of it 1" 
 
 " But so striking a thing ! and so ob- 
 vious a use !" said Harry. " What seems 
 so easy and natural now, that it is done ! " 
 
 " True, Harry. The thing was there 
 
243 
 
 before their eyes, but useless, because they 
 did not think of making use of it." 
 
 " And for forty years and more !" said 
 Harry. 
 
 After a long silence, during which 
 Harry stumbled sundry times, he ex- 
 claimed, 
 
 " Father ! I am thinking — " 
 
 " Not of where you are going," said 
 his father. 
 
 " But I am thinking, father, that there 
 are a gi-eat many other little things, which 
 people have not yet observed, that may 
 lead to great things, if people think of 
 putting them to use." 
 
 " Undoubtedly," said his father: " in 
 this you are very right." 
 
 *' And, father, do you think, that if I 
 try to observe and consider what use I 
 could put things to, I shall ever discover 
 or invent any thing new?" 
 
 Harry was here interrupted by stum- 
 bling over a walking stick, with which 
 a man whom they met was feeling his 
 way, and which Harry had not observed. 
 
 i^i 2 
 
244 
 
 " I wish that man would not poke out 
 his stick so," said Harry ; " it nearly threw 
 me down." 
 
 The man begged his pardon — said he 
 was blind, and was forced to grope his 
 way with his stick. Harry now begged 
 his pardon for running against his stick, 
 and guided him across to the next street, 
 and the old man wished him a good night, 
 and said, 
 
 ^' May you never be blind as I am. And 
 whenever you are old, may you meet with 
 help as I have from you." 
 
 As soon as the blind man had left them, 
 Harry began to recollect what he was say- 
 ing when he first met him, and he would 
 have resumed the conversation, but his fa- 
 ther told him, that he could not talk to him 
 any more now, and that he must walk fast, 
 for it was getting late. Harry trudged on 
 as quickly as he could. His father thought 
 he must be tired, and so he was, but he 
 scorned to complain. 
 
 It was late when they reached the inn. 
 Tea had been waiting some time, and 
 
245 
 
 Lucy, after struggling to keep herself 
 awake, had fairly given up the point, and 
 had fallen asleep, her head resting on her 
 arms, which were crossed on the table. 
 She was so fast asleep that she could 
 hardly be wakened sufficiently when Harry 
 came in, to ask whether he had had a plea- 
 sant walk. After swallowing a cup of tea, 
 with her eyes half shut, she submissively 
 obeyed the signal of the chambermaid with 
 bed-chamber candles, and retired to that 
 rest which she much wanted. 
 
 Harry would stay up to listen to a con- 
 versation between his father and a postil- 
 lion, from which he hoped to discover 
 what w^ould be done in the mornino- and 
 what was meant by "that will depend 
 ugon circumstances." But before he had 
 made this out he fell fast asleep across the 
 great black trunk, where he lay unobserved, 
 till the waiter tumbled over his legs, and 
 let fall a spoon upon his head. Harry 
 started up. He had dreamt, as he said, 
 that he had been struck by the beam of a 
 steam engine. His mother exhorted him 
 
246 
 
 to go and dream in bed. She took up a 
 candle to light him on his way ; but he 
 turned, and stood looking at the postillion, 
 astonished to see him still standing there, 
 and his father still talking to him. 
 
 " Mother ! what an immense time this 
 man has been standing talking," said 
 Harry. 
 
 *' Not above five minutes, my dear/' 
 replied his mother. 
 
 " Five minutes only ! " cried Harry. " I 
 have been in that time all the way to Ger- 
 many, and back again, at a palace magni- 
 ficently lighted up with flaming crocuses 
 of gas. I asked whose house it was. * Do 
 not you know !' said the man. ' It is your 
 friend the great Otto Guerick's.' I was not 
 surprised that he was living still. I only said 
 I would go and see him. But the inside 
 of the palace was like a cotton-mill, and 
 there was a great steam engine going on 
 working away. Through all the work- 
 men, and women, and children, I went on, 
 asking for Otto Guerick, till at last one 
 guide-man said he would show me the 
 
S47 
 
 \^ay to Otto's laboratory, where he was 
 trying experiments always^ in his silk night- 
 gown. But the man said the laboratory 
 was at the top of the house, and asked if 
 I could follow him up high ladders. Oh, 
 yes ! I said, as high as ever he pleased. So 
 I went scrambling on after him, and if my 
 foot had slipped, I should have gone down, 
 down, down, I do not know where ; but I 
 reached the top, and a door opened, and 
 I heard the rustling of Otto Guerick's 
 silk night-gown, and I was just going in 
 when that spoon, which I thought was the 
 beam of a steam engine, fell upon my 
 head. Oh, mother ! I wish it had not 
 fallen. It was so provoking to be wakened 
 at that moment, just when I was going in 
 to see Otto Guerick. I wish that I could 
 dream it over again." 
 
 " You had best sleep again, Harry, my 
 dear," said his mother, " and this time 
 sleep in your bed. Come," said she, 
 showing him the way through the passage 
 to his bed-room, where she put into his 
 hands his night-cap, which Lucy, even in 
 
248 
 
 the depth of her own sleepiness, had re- 
 membered to leave ready for him. 
 
 Harry slept nine hours without inter- 
 mission, but he saw no more of Otto 
 Guerick, or his gas illuminated man- 
 sion. He was still fast asleep when his 
 mother called him. During breakfast his 
 father and mother talked about the various 
 noises they had heard in this inn all night, 
 and by which they had been so much dis- 
 turbed that they could not sleep. His 
 mother said, that a coach had arrived or 
 set out every half hour, that she had heard 
 bells and calls, hostlers and chamber- 
 maids, and waiters running to and fro in 
 the passages continually, and people call- 
 ing perpetually for their trunks, and port- 
 manteaus, and parcels, and bills. Harry's 
 father said, that the partition between their 
 room and the next was so thin, that they 
 could hear every sound ; and there was a 
 man in that room, who seemed to be pull- 
 ing off his boots, and throwing them down, 
 and throwing wooden legs after them all 
 night. 
 
249 
 
 Harry and Lucy looked at each other 
 when their father and mother talked of 
 all these noises; they were surprised, for 
 they had slept so soundly, that they had 
 not heard them. 
 
 During breakfast Harry told Lucy, that 
 it depended upon circumstances whether 
 they were to go on with their journey to- 
 day, or to stay in this town. Lucy said 
 she was not at all the wiser, as she did 
 not know what circumstances he meant. 
 Their mother told them, that it depended 
 upon a letter which his father expected to 
 receive by the post, to tell him whe- 
 ther his friend would retiirn home this 
 day or not. Harry's only reason for wish- 
 ing to stay was, that Lucy might see the 
 pretty walk he had taken the preceding 
 evenincT, but as it was now raining:, thev 
 could not walk, and he was glad that they 
 were not to spend the day at the inn, 
 where thev had nothinof to do. 
 
 " What shall we see next?"' said Lucy, 
 as she got into the carriage. '• I like sfo- 
 ino^ on to somethingr new." 
 
 M 5 
 
 o 
 
250 
 
 '* If you had your choice, Harry, what 
 would you wish to see next?" said Lucy. 
 
 " A mountain," said Harry, who was 
 faithful to his old wish for a mountain to mea- 
 sure with his portable barometer. While 
 he had been taken up with the cotton manu- 
 factory, and the steam-engine, and the gas 
 lights, this wish had slept in his mind ; but 
 it was now awakened with fresh eagerness. 
 As they journeyed on he eyed the outline 
 of every hill on the horizon. But he ob- 
 served a discreet silence upon the subject. 
 Even when Lucy exclaimed, ^' Here's a 
 mountain coming for you, Harry ! " he re- 
 plied soberly — " So I see, my dear, but it 
 is not near enough yet ; I will speak when 
 I think it is time." 
 
 At last, when they came into Derbyshire, 
 and into the hilly parts of that county, 
 Harry spoke, for he thought it was time. 
 
 '^ Father ! here are plenty of mountains ! 
 will you be so good as to stop the carriage, 
 and to let me get out, that I may measure 
 this one which is almost close to us. I will 
 
251 
 
 not detain you above twenty minutes, mo- 
 ther, if you could be so good as to wait — 
 in ten minutes I would run up, in ten mi- 
 nutes I would be down again ! May I, 
 father?" 
 
 " No, Harry," said his father, " we can- 
 not stop for you now. It would detain 
 us much longer than you imagine. Your 
 eye deceives you, in judging of dis- 
 tances, and of heights to which it is unac- 
 customed." 
 
 " For your comfort, Harry," added his 
 mother, " we are going to Matlock, a 
 place where you will find yourself sur- 
 rounded by fine mountains, upon which 
 you may try your own and your barome- 
 ter's measuring powers at leisure, for we 
 shall stay there two or three days." 
 
 " Delightful !" thought Harry, "Thank 
 you mother," said he. 
 
 Presently they entered a narrow but 
 beautiful valley, a stream ran through it, 
 and there were hills on each side. Their 
 banks were covered to a great height with 
 trees of the softest foliage, and of various 
 
252 
 
 shades of green, tinged here and there with 
 the brown and yellow colours of autumn. 
 Above, high above the young feathery 
 plantations, and the scrubby brushwood, 
 rose bare, whitish rocks. Sometimes 
 stretching in perpendicular smooth masses ; 
 sometimes broken in abrupt craggy sum- 
 mits, huge fragments from which had fal- 
 len into the river below. The river flowed 
 tranquil and placid till when opposed by 
 these massy fragments, it foamed and 
 frothed against their immoveable sides ; 
 then, separating, the waters whirled round 
 them in different currents, and joining 
 again, the stream ran on its course, spark- 
 ling in the sun-shine. The road now ly^ 
 ing beside this river, brought them soon to 
 the pretty straggling village of Matlock. 
 
 The morning after their arrival, they 
 went out to walk At a litde distance from 
 the hotel, where they lodged, was a walk 
 up Masson-hill. It was a zigzag path, cut 
 through a wood of fir trees, reaching to 
 the summit, called the Heights of Abraham. 
 They went part of the way up this path, 
 
253 
 
 and Harry was eager to go to the very top, 
 but his mother was not able, she said, to 
 go quite to the Heights of Abraham ; she, 
 and his father, and Lucy, went to see a 
 cave in this hill ; but his father told Harry 
 that he might go on by himself, if he liked 
 it, to the top of Masson-hill, and take its 
 height with his barometer, and compare 
 this with the reputed height, which is said 
 to be about 750 feet. 
 
 Harry, to Lucy's surprise, stood hesitat- 
 ing, with his barometer in his hand, in- 
 stead of going on with the alacrity she ex- 
 pected. 
 
 '' What is the matter ? would you rather 
 come with us to see the cave ? " said Lucy. 
 
 " No;" said Harry, '' that is not the 
 thing." 
 
 "What then?" said Lucy, ''Do you 
 want me to go with you ; I should like it : 
 but you know mamma said, that I must not 
 go running about everywhere with you 
 here, as I do at home : I must stav with 
 mamma. But you look afraid to go by 
 yourself," added Lucy, laughing. 
 
254 
 
 " Afraid ! my dear, I am not the least 
 afraid to go by myself anywhere in the 
 world," said Harry, proudly : " 1 am not 
 going to do any thing wrong : what should 
 I be afraid of?" 
 
 " I do not know," said Lucy, " that is 
 what I want you to tell me. I am sure 
 there is something you do not like, or else 
 why do not you set off?" 
 
 " There is something I do not like," 
 said Harry, *' that I acknowledge. I do 
 not like to meet those people who are 
 there, farther up on the walk." 
 
 '' What harm will they do you, Harry?" 
 said his father. 
 
 " No harm, father ; only I do not like to 
 meet them, because they are strangers." 
 
 " But since, as you observed, Harry, you 
 are not going to do any thing wrong, you 
 need not be ashamed — I will not say 
 afi^aid, to meet them ! " said his mother. 
 
 " That is very true, mother," said Harry, 
 ^^I know it is very foolish; well, I will 
 conquer it ; I will go on by myself," added 
 he, resolutely. 
 
255 
 
 " Go on and prosper then," said his fa- 
 ther. " I dare say that those people will 
 never think about you, unless you do some- 
 thing to attract their attention." 
 
 Harry walked off as fast as he could ; 
 nor stopped till he reached the Heights of 
 Abraham. Then he took out his baro- 
 meter, and noted down the height at which 
 the mercury stood, both in the barometer 
 and thermometer. Then he went down 
 the hill, and, as soon as he had reached 
 the bottom, he looked at the mercury 
 again, in each, noting down carefully 
 these heights also. Finding a retired 
 nook, away from the public path, he sat 
 down to work at his calculations, re- 
 solved not to stir till he had completed 
 them. On his barometer there was en- 
 graved a table of the heights, at which 
 the mercury stands at different elevations, 
 calculated when the atmosphere is at the 
 freezing point. Besides this, he had taken 
 care to bring with him a certain little book* 
 
 * " An expeditious method of determining alti- 
 
256 
 
 containing " An expeditious method of 
 calculating altitudes;" the want of which 
 had, in his first attempt to measure the 
 church, prevented his succeeding to his sa- 
 tisfaction. Now understanding and fol- 
 lowing the directions contained in this 
 little trusty companion to his dear porta- 
 ble barometer, he made his calculations 
 sufficiently accurate to satisfy his consci- 
 ence. He brought his answer within two 
 feet of the height, which his father had 
 told him had been determined by previous 
 measurement. 
 
 He next went to look for the cave. 
 
 It was a large, deep, dark cavern, at the 
 farther end of which he perceived light ; 
 and as he advanced he saw the forms of 
 men — of the guides, who held torches, 
 and he heard Lucy's voice, and the voices 
 of his father and mother, and soon distin- 
 
 tudes with the new portable mountain barometer ; 
 with a description of that instrument, by Sir Harry 
 Englefield, Bart." 
 
 A little tract, which is, or ought to be, sold with 
 every portable barometer. 
 
257 
 
 guished their figures. They were all 
 looking up at the roof, on which the 
 guides, with raised torches, threw a strong 
 light. From the roof, which appeared en- 
 crusted all over with yellow earth, hung 
 multitudes of what seemed like earthy 
 icicles, of the same colour, and of enor- 
 mous bulk. 
 
 " My dear Harry ! are you there ? " cried 
 Lucy, ^' I am glad you are come ; I was 
 so afraid you would not come in time to 
 see these ! Are not they beautiful ? Do you 
 know what they are ? They are stalac- 
 tites." 
 
 "And how came they there?" said 
 Harry, " and what are they ? You tell me 
 they are stalactites, but that tells me no- 
 thing but their name." 
 
 " It is a good thing in the first place," 
 said Lucy, " to know the name, because 
 then we can ask people questions, and 
 then they will know what we are talking 
 about." She told him all she had just 
 learned, from what she had heard the 
 guides and her father say ; that these 
 
25S 
 
 stalactites were formed by the water 
 oozing through the roof of the cavern, 
 and depositing, as it trickled downj some 
 calcareous earth, which it had dissolved 
 in its course through the soil and rocks, 
 along and down which it had passed. 
 She believed that these rocks were cal* 
 careous, or limestone. She had further 
 heard one of the guides say, that some 
 stalactites found in this country became 
 almost as hard as stones, were of various 
 colours, and had been polished and made 
 into necklaces, and different ornaments. 
 The QTiides had broken off from the sides 
 of the cave some of the stalactites, and 
 had given pieces of them to Lucy ; some 
 of these, which had been newly formed, 
 were softish, and crumbled easily when 
 pressed between the fingers; some were 
 a little harder and crisp, cracking rather 
 than mouldering when pressed ; others 
 were as hard, Harry observed, as some 
 petrifactions which he had seen in his 
 uncle's collection. His father told him, 
 that those petrifactions had been formed 
 
259 
 
 in the same manner in which these sta- 
 lactites were formed ; and the guides 
 said that they would show him plenty of 
 petrifactions ; and crystals, and beautiful 
 spars of different colours, for which Derby- 
 shire is famous. 
 
 While all this was saying, Lucy's mo- 
 ther, who did not like standing still long 
 in this damp cavern, had by gentle 
 degrees, alternately drawing Lucy on by 
 the hand, and urging Harry forward by 
 the shoulder, kept moving onwards, till 
 they found themselves again at the en- 
 trance or the exit of the cave ; they were 
 glad to see the day-light, to feel the fresh 
 warm air, and to tread again on dry 
 ground. 
 
 Several boys and girls met them in 
 their way to the hotel, with baskets 
 of crystals, spars, and petrifactions. In 
 one basket Lucy saw a petrified wig. 
 The guides told her, that the people of 
 Matlock amuse themselves by putting 
 wigs and different things in these calca- 
 reous springs, to have them, as they say. 
 
260 
 
 converted into stone. Such they seem 
 to turn into, as no appearance of the 
 original substance is left except the form. 
 But, as Harry observed, it is not that the 
 substance turns into stone, but that the 
 calcareous deposition covers it all over, 
 and the original substance in time decay- 
 ing, nothing afterwards is left but calca- 
 reous stone. In another basket Lucy saw 
 spars of various colours ; some of purple 
 and some of amber, of different shades, 
 in rainbow stripes, or cloud-like streaks. 
 Some of these spars were made into 
 hearts, and necklaces, and boxes, and 
 urns, and eggs, and various trinkets. 
 
 Lucy's mother told her that she might 
 choose any one of these things she liked. 
 
 Lucy chose a polished ^^^^ of shaded 
 purple spar ; it seemed transparent, and 
 looked as if you could see into it to a 
 great depth, but when Lucy tried to open 
 it, she found that it did not open. 
 
 *' Of what use then can it be ?" 
 
 It had a little gold ring at the top of it, 
 and was intended to be used as a netting 
 
261 
 
 weight. Lucy had been long making a 
 purse for her father : she was sure that 
 the pleasure of using this pretty weight 
 would encourage her to go on netting it, 
 as soon as ever they should come to the 
 end of their journey. But how was the 
 egg to be carried ? Her father said he 
 could not have it rolling about the car- 
 riage; and the pockets were already fijlly 
 occupied. Lucy would have been re- 
 duced to take a flat heart, instead of her 
 beautiful egg, if Harry — '* good at need" 
 — had not stepped forward, and opening, 
 wide as he could stretch, the mouth of 
 his waistcoat pocket, bid her put her egg 
 in there, ^^ where there is plenty and 
 plenty of room," added he, shrinking in 
 his stomach to show the ample space. 
 
 " My dear Harry, you are very good," 
 said Lucy. 
 
 " Not the least," said Harry; '' I 
 should be very bad, if I did not recollect 
 how good you were about my camera 
 obscura, which you crammed into the 
 
262 
 
 trunk. Come, drop your egg in here at 
 once, and say no more about it." 
 
 She dropped it into the pocket. 
 
 '' But, my dear Harry, it looks as if you 
 had a great swelling ; people will stare." 
 
 " I do not care," said Harry ; " let them 
 stare." 
 
 This was indeed, as Lucy knew, a great 
 proof of Harry's affection ; for in general 
 he disliked excessively to be stared at, 
 and avoided every thing that could bring 
 upon him such a misfortune. 
 
 " Besides," added he, patting down the 
 egg in his pocket, " it does not stick out 
 now more than my ball, which I have 
 often carried here, and nobody ever 
 noticed it, except my mother. Indeed, 
 now I have got it into the corner, you see 
 it is not a greater lump than my pocket 
 handkerchief, which sticks out as much 
 on the other side, so all's right." 
 
 " But if you were to tumble down, the 
 hard egg might hurt you, Harry." 
 
 " I might hurt it," said Harry, " for I 
 
263 
 
 should break it, I suppose. But, my dear, 
 I never, that is hardly ever, tumble down ; 
 and now I have this egg, it will make me 
 more careful ; so say no more about it. 
 Now I want to tell you about the Heights 
 of Abraham." 
 
 He had prudently forborne to speak 
 of his operations, while her head had 
 been full of stalactites, and spars, and 
 wigs. She now listened to him with due 
 sympathy, and was delighted when he 
 informed her, that his barometer measure- 
 ment came right within two feet. His 
 father congratulated him upon his success, 
 with which he was particularly pleased, 
 because it was the consequence of per- 
 severance. He was glad to see that his 
 son would not be satisfied till he had 
 rectified his errors, and had been as ex- 
 act as he possibly could. This promised 
 well for his future progress. All the rest 
 was mere child's play. " Very few 
 uncles," said he, '^ would have given a 
 portable barometer to a boy of your age. 
 I am glad you can prove to him that you 
 
264 
 
 have been able to use bis present, and 
 that it has been of service to you, 
 Harry." 
 
 " It was lucky for me," said Harry, 
 ^^ that there was nobody by, on those 
 Heights of Abraham, when I was at my 
 work ; and lucky too^ when I came to 
 the bottom of the hill, that I found a snug 
 place, out of the way of every body, where 
 I made my calculations, or else I am sure 
 they would have been all wrong." 
 
 ** That would have been a pity ! " said 
 Lucy, " after all your pains." 
 
 " Therefore it would be a o;reat ad- 
 vantage to you, Harry," said his father, 
 *' if you could learn to calculate, and to 
 be able to go on with whatever you are 
 doing, when people are looking at you, 
 as well as when you are by yourself; 
 because you cannot hope always to be 
 alone when you want to think, nor can 
 you always hope to find snug solitary 
 places for your calculations. Every com- 
 mon schoolboy is forced to learn his 
 lesson, and to cast up sums without being 
 
265 
 
 disturbed by strangers. All this is easily 
 learned by practice." 
 
 **Aye, by practice, I dare say," said 
 Harry. 
 
 " And I will tell you what you can da 
 by your own sense," added his father : 
 " upon every opportunity try to conquer 
 your dislike to going among strangers, and 
 then you will get over your bashfulness." 
 
 " Father, then, if you please, I will go 
 with you to day, and dine at the public 
 table, instead of staying with my mother 
 and Lucy." 
 
 " Right, my boy, so you shall." 
 
 When dinner time came, Harry went 
 along with his father, and, as he walked 
 into the public room, said to himself, 
 " I am doing nothing wrong : I need not 
 be ashamed : I will not be bashful." 
 Still a mist of confusion came before his 
 eyes, when, seated beside his father, at a 
 very long table, he saw opposite to him 
 a line of strangers, and on all sides of 
 him strangers ! He scarcely ventured to 
 look up at their faces. He was seized 
 
 VOL. I. N 
 
266 
 
 with one of his fits of the cramp of bash- 
 fulness, under which he sat suffering and 
 stiffened, blushing, and conscious that he 
 was blushing, scarcely able to answer 
 "Yes," or, ^' No, thank you," when he was 
 asked what he would have. He thought 
 that every body must take him for a fool, 
 and this made him feel more uneasy and 
 awkward. He scarcely saw, or knew what 
 he was doing : he threw down first one 
 thing, then another; first his fork, then his 
 bread in reaching for the fork, then the 
 salt cellar, and at last a glass of water 
 into his father's plate. It was weH it was 
 no worse. His father set the glass up 
 again, sent away his plate, and said nothing 
 about it. Harry wished he was in his 
 mother's room, or under the table, or any- 
 where but where he was. His blunders 
 and disasters had more and more pro- 
 voked him with himself, and he thought 
 he had disgraced himself for ever, and 
 that people must think he was a vulgar 
 creature, or a child not fit to dine with 
 men or gentlemen, nor used to dine any- 
 
267 
 
 where but in the nursery. His face was 
 by this time all burning with shame, and 
 scarlet up to the roots of his hair. 
 
 While he was in this condition, the ladv 
 who was sitting beside him, asked him if 
 she should help him to some oysters : he 
 happened to dislike oysters, and he an- 
 swered, " No, thank you," in rather a surly 
 tone ; and then, thinking he had done 
 wrong to answer so gruffly, held his plate 
 out, and said, "If you please, ma'am." 
 
 " But you have not finished your sweet- 
 meat; I did not observe that,'' said the 
 lady. " You do not like sweetmeats and 
 oysters together, do you, my dear?" 
 
 *• I do not care, ma'am, thank you,'' said 
 Harry. 
 
 "You are not the young gentleman, 
 are you," said the lady, " whom 1 met 
 this morning, with a barometer in his 
 hand ? " 
 
 " I do not remember meeting you, 
 ma am," said Harry; "but I had a baro- 
 meter in my hand." 
 
 " Really : I should not have thought you 
 
 n2 
 
268 
 
 were the same. May I ask what you were 
 doing with that barometer?" 
 
 " I cannot explain it to you, ma'am, 
 now," said Harry. 
 
 A gentleman luckily asked her at this 
 moment to drink a glass of wine, and she 
 turned away from Harry, and thought no 
 more about him or her question. Still his 
 father took no notice of him, but left him 
 to recover himself by degrees, and to find 
 out the truth, that people were thinking of 
 themselves much more than of him. Gra- 
 dually he came to the use of his senses and 
 understanding, so far as to hear and com- 
 prehend something entertaining, which a 
 gentleman who sat opposite was relating. 
 As soon as Harry became interested in lis- 
 tening to what this gentleman was saying, 
 he unstiffened, looked up, moved forward 
 on his chair, forgot his blushes and his 
 blunders, and all his fears of having dis- 
 graced himself; in short, he forgot himself 
 altogether. 
 
 The gentleman was giving an account 
 of the plundering of a vessel, which had 
 
269 
 
 been stranded on the coast of South Wales, 
 in St. Bride's bay. It was a transport 
 laden with ordnance stores from America. 
 Harry made out, that '' ordnance stores" 
 here meant gunpowder and guns. Some 
 of the people on the coast saw the signals 
 of distress, which were made by the per- 
 sons on board the vessel; but instead of 
 putting out boats, and going to their assist- 
 ance, these wicked people thought only of 
 plundering the vessel, and carrying away 
 every thing they could for themselves. 
 They assembled on the beach, and waited 
 there till the ship was driven on shore, 
 and wrecked. While the poor people on 
 board were trying to save their lives, these 
 plunderers were busy carrying off all they 
 could from the wreck. They boarded her 
 as soon as possible, because they knew, that 
 as soon as ever the o^entlemen of the coun- 
 try should hear that a vessel had been 
 wrecked, they would come to assist the 
 sufferers, and to prevent the plunder. 
 The mob made such haste, that they got 
 possession of their prey, and landed a con- 
 
270 
 
 siderable quantity of gunpowder from the 
 stranded vessel. Many of the plunderers 
 were loaded with as much as they could 
 carry, while others were struggling for 
 their share of the booty, as their confede- 
 rates were dragging it on the shore. 
 
 In this scene of confusion, and in these 
 struggles, a quantity of the gunpowder 
 was scattered on the shore, and on the 
 rocks. One of the rino-leaders of the mob 
 quarrelling with another, who had got pos- 
 session of a musket, which he wanted to 
 have for himself, seized it and threw it 
 from him with violence. What happened 
 none could exactly see, as it all passed so 
 quickly ; but, probably, the musket had 
 struck against a flint — a single spark was 
 enough set fire to the gunpowder which 
 was scattered over the rock. One ex- 
 plosion after another was heard, one 
 train communicated to another, and in a 
 few seconds the whole strand and rocks 
 seemed wrapped in fire and smoke. Many 
 of the plunderers were killed on the spot; 
 others were dreadfully maimed, and died 
 
271 
 
 lingering deaths. The man who threw the 
 musket absconded, and was never heard 
 of afterwards." 
 
 While Harry listened to this dreadful but 
 true story, pity for the shipwrecked people 
 who perished for want of timely assistance, 
 indignation against the wretches who 
 thought only of plundering the wreck, 
 wretches such as he could hardly believe 
 to exist, horror at the catastrophe, an aw- 
 ful sense of the justice of the punishment 
 which they immediately brought upon 
 themselves, and satisfaction that they 
 gained nothing by their crime — altogether 
 filled his mind; and these successive senti- 
 ments and reflections so absorbed hin). 
 that he completely forgot every thing else, 
 forgot where he was, and who was by. 
 and all his own little foolish feelings. 
 What was become of his bashfulness ? It 
 was all gone? gone off with that superflu- 
 ous anxiety, which he had felt about the 
 opinions the surrounding people might 
 form of him. 
 
272 
 
 After they left Matlock, the road ap- 
 peared uninteresting to our travellers. 
 But they had books in the carriage, and 
 Lucy's mother began to read at first to 
 herself, and afterwards to her companions, 
 when she found any thing that she thought 
 would entertain them. 
 
 '^ Here is an account," said she, " of the 
 various stinging insects which infest parts 
 of South America; where the inhabitants 
 pass their lives complaining of the insuffer- 
 able torment of the moschettoes. 
 
 " Will you be so good as to read it to 
 us now? " said Lucy ; " I am so very com- 
 fortably settled, with your dressing box 
 under my feet." 
 
 *' Persons who have not navigated the 
 great rivers of South America, for instance 
 the Oroonoko and the Rio Magdelena, can 
 scarcely conceive how, at every instant of 
 life, you may be tormented by insects fly- 
 ing in the air, and how the multitude of 
 these little animals may render vast re- 
 
273 
 
 gions almost uninhabitable. They cover 
 your face and hands, pierce clothes with 
 their long sucker, in the form of a needle, 
 get into your mouth and nostrils, and set 
 you coughing and sneezing whenever you 
 attempt to speak in the open air. In the 
 villages, on the banks of the Oroonoko, 
 which are surrounded by immense forests, 
 the plague of flies affords an inexhaustible 
 subject of conversation. When two per- 
 sons meet in the morning, the first questions 
 they address to each other are, ^' How did 
 you find the zancudoes during the night? 
 How are we to-day as to moschettoes* .'' 
 
 At New Barcelona, the wretched inha- 
 bitants generally stretch themselves on the 
 ground, and pass the night buried in sand, 
 three or four inches deep, leaving out their 
 heads only, which they cover with hand- 
 kerchiefs. Farther on, the traveller fares 
 worse, for he comes to the region of the 
 sorrowful people, as they are called, who are 
 doomed to be for ever tortured by these in- 
 * Humboldt. Personal Narrative, vol v. 
 
 N 5 
 
274 
 
 sects. One poor monk, who had spent, 
 as he said, his twenty years of moschet- 
 toes, in that country, desired Humboldt and 
 his companions to tell the people in Eu- 
 rope, what the poor monks suffer m the 
 forests of South America. When an in- 
 ferior monk commits any fault, his superior 
 exiles him to this country, and they call it 
 beino; condemned to the moschettoes. 
 
 Lucy said she was glad she was not con- 
 demned to the moschettoes, and she asked 
 her mother if there was any more that was 
 entertainingr about them. Her mother read 
 to her an account of the different kinds of 
 stinging insects, which mount guard at 
 different hours of the day and night. Just 
 at the time, when one party are flying 
 away, and when the next have not fixed, 
 or, as soldiers would say, at the time of 
 relieving guard, there is an interval of re- 
 pose. The different hours of the day and 
 night are marked and known to the inha- 
 bitants by the different stinging flies, so 
 that, as they say, they could tell blindfold 
 
275 
 
 what hour it is, by the sting of the last, or 
 the hum of the coming torment. 
 
 "Horrible creatures!" said Lucy, "I 
 am very glad we have none of them in our 
 country." 
 
 " Horrible ! " repeated Harry, in an ab- 
 sent tone : he seemed to be heartily glad 
 to have this history of the moschettoes 
 finished, and to get rid of them. They 
 had prevented him from fixing his atten- 
 tion upon something which he wanted to 
 think of. 
 
 The moment his mother's closino; tone 
 announced that she had finished, he threw 
 himself half over his side of the carriao-e, 
 and beo:an to watch the hind wheel. 
 
 " Is there anv thino; the matter with the 
 wheel, brother?" said Lucy. 
 
 *' Nothing, my dear, I am only thinking 
 of something." 
 
 " Take care, Harry," said his mother, 
 " I think you will fall out." 
 
 '' No thank you, mamma, there is no dan- 
 ger of that, I am holding by the holders," 
 said Harry. 
 
276 
 
 There was nothing more to be said about 
 the safety of the position he had chosen ; 
 something might, perhaps, have been said 
 about its unsociability, but his mother went 
 on reading, and his father and Lucy were 
 listenino^ to her. 
 
 " Oh ! Harry ! " cried Lucy, " listen to 
 this, here are the termites, the great ants, 
 will not you hear about them?" 
 
 " Thank you," said Harry, *^ I have 
 heard enough about them." 
 
 She left him to his wheel for some time, 
 but presently returned again with — 
 
 '^ Oh ! Harry, did you hear that about 
 the jaguar ? that came bounding to the 
 shore to play with the little girl, and tore 
 the skin of her forehead, and she drove 
 him away with the bough of a tree ; only 
 think ! — the jaguar ! " 
 
 '* My dear Lucy, you jogged me and put 
 me out in my count. Now I must begin 
 all over again," said Harry. 
 
 She drew back, but after some little time 
 exclaimed again — 
 
 "Harry! Oh! Harry, hear this ! 2i shirt 
 
277 
 
 tret I My dear Harry, a real name of a real 
 tree, fifty feet high, shirts ready made grow 
 upon them without a seam 1 " 
 
 " One hundred and fifty-five ! I am very 
 glad of it. One hundred and fifty-seven," 
 said Harry, continuing to count on. 
 
 " If the shirt-tree won't do, nothing 
 will," thought Lucy; and she sat down 
 and sat still during many pages ; then start- 
 ing up again, she threw her arm round him. 
 
 *' Oh! Harry, Harry; the most beauti- 
 ful story you ever heard. A mother in 
 search of her children, who went through 
 such difficulties, and such places, as no per- 
 son had ever the courage to go through 
 before ! and lived for four days on nothing 
 but black ants, and was stretched upon the 
 rack at last, and tortured. Oh ' Harry, 
 won't you listen to the end of it?" 
 
 " Two hundred and twenty-one : my 
 dear, another time, you will tell it to me ; 
 two hundred and twenty-two." 
 
 Lucy gave it up, left him to himself, and 
 listened to the end of the story ; sorry, 
 
278 
 
 however, that he could not, or would not 
 enjoy the pleasure with her. 
 
 After this story of the Piedra del la 
 Madre, or rock of the mother, was finished, 
 Lucy's mother was tired reading aloud: 
 her father took up a book to read to him- 
 self; and Lucy, who had the happy power, 
 either travelling or at home, of being able 
 to amuse herself, began to point out to her 
 mother every thing or animal she saw on 
 the road, which she thought would look 
 pretty in drawing. 
 
 *' Look, mamma, at that woman, who is 
 crossing the field with a basket of hay on 
 her back, and the cow following, without 
 her perceiving it, and eating the hay, is it 
 not like one of the vignettes in Bewick? 
 Mamma, as you are not busy now, when- 
 ever I see what I think would be a good 
 Bewick on the road, I will tell you, and 
 you will tell me whether you think it 
 would be pretty or not." 
 
 " Look at this old tired soldier stopping 
 beside the well, and the little girl holding 
 
279 
 
 up a tin can that she has just filled. Now 
 he is stooping to drink, and she is putting 
 back her hair off her forehead, and the 
 setting^ sun full on her face. Would not 
 this be a pretty Bewick?" 
 
 Her father, who had now finished what 
 he was reading, and who was always 
 cheerful and sociable, put away his book, 
 and looked out of the window, joining with 
 Lucy and her mother in their diversion. 
 Presently he saw an old man and woman 
 trudging together down a lane that led to 
 a wood, and he began to sing a favourite 
 song of Lucy's, in which she immediately 
 joined : 
 
 *' There was an old man who lived in a wood 
 As you may plainly see, 
 He said he could do more work in a day 
 Than his wife could do in three. 
 
 (( 
 
 With all my heart, the old woman said. 
 
 If you will me allow, 
 You shall stay at home to day, 
 
 And I'll go follow the plough." 
 
280 
 
 Harry turned about, and looked much 
 discomfited by the singing, and Lucy 
 said : — 
 
 " Join us Harry, oh ! join us, you know 
 it." 
 
 But Harry replied only by stopping both 
 his ears, and hanging again out of the 
 carriage window further than before. The 
 singing in full glee was continuing, when 
 Harry drew in his head, and rubbing his 
 hands, exclaimed, as he threw himself back 
 in his corner — 
 
 '^ I have it ! I have found it out, papa! " 
 
 His father did not ask what he had 
 found out, but went on singing. 
 
 " Father," said Harry, '^ will you ex- 
 plain to me now what is meant by a pa- 
 tent, or by taking out a patent for an inven- 
 tion?" 
 
 " I am singing, do not you hear ? " said 
 his father. " Go on Lucy, go on singing 
 with me." 
 
 When they had finished the song, Harry 
 asked his question again, about the patent 
 
281 
 
 for an invention, but his father did not 
 listen to him. 
 
 ^^ Papa," cried Harry, after eagerly- 
 waiting for the moment, when as he thought 
 he could fix his attention; " I want to 
 tell you what I have been thinking of all 
 this time." 
 
 " I do not want to hear it, Harry," said 
 his father, " I cannot turn my mind to what 
 you are thinking of; I will go on with my 
 own thoughts." 
 
 So saying, his father put himself into 
 Harry's late position, hanging over the 
 side of the carriage. 
 
 " Well," said he, at last, turning to 
 Harry, who looked doleful, " you feel how 
 unpleasant it is, not to have people ready 
 to sympathize with you ; you feel how dis- 
 agreeable it would be to you, if we could 
 not turn our thoughts to what you are 
 thinking of, when you wish for our atten- 
 tion." 
 
 Harry, looking ashamed, said, " That is 
 true, papa, I believe I have been all day 
 
282 
 
 very disagreeable ; but I did not mean it ; 
 I was thinking of something that I hoped 
 you would be pleased with, and I did not 
 like to leave off till I had quite invented it, 
 or at least made it as good as 1 could." 
 
 " Oh ! papa," said Lucy, *' may I speak ? 
 You ought to be pleased with his going on 
 persevering through all the noises we made, 
 and every interruption. I am sure I could 
 not so have fixed my attention." 
 
 '^ lou and your brother, my dear Lucy," 
 said her father, *' have two opposite faults, 
 and I wish you both to know them, that 
 you may take care and use your power 
 over your own minds to cure them. Your 
 attention, Lucy, passes too quickly from 
 one thing to another. You are what is 
 is vulgarly called birdwitted. You should 
 endeavour to prevent your mind from fly- 
 ing off from one subject to another : I en- 
 courage you to fix it as steadily, and as 
 long at a time as you can. You are of 
 such an affectionate, sympathizing temper, 
 that there is no danger that you should 
 
283 
 
 not be ready enough to turn your thoughts 
 to the pursuits and amusements of others, 
 whenever it is necessary or agreeable. 
 You, Harry, have acquired the power and 
 habit of fixing your attention steadily on 
 your own pursuits, but you cannot easily 
 turn your mind from your own thoughts to 
 what is going on near you, or to what 
 other people wish you to think of. Now 
 consider, that your sister, and your mother, 
 and I, and every body, like syrnpalliiy, as 
 well as you do probably ; and if you ac- 
 quired this unsociable habit of never join- 
 ino; in what we are doinor", or beino^ inte- 
 rested in what we are saying or hearing, 
 you would become a very disagreeable 
 companion." 
 
 " I hope I shall not," said Harry, with a 
 look of serious alarm. 
 
 ^' You have perseverance and laudable 
 ambition enough," continued his father; 
 '' but the danger for you is, that you should 
 confine your attention too much to one small 
 circle of objects, and not enlarge your mind 
 by general observation and knowledge. 
 
284 ; 
 
 You perceive, that I speak to you, not 
 as to a foolish child, but as to a reasona- 
 ble creature, who is desirous to improve 
 himself. On this journey you will have 
 opportunities of curing yourself of this 
 fault. When you are going through a 
 new country, look about you, observe every 
 thing. When you are with people who 
 are talking on subjects that are new to you, 
 listen to what they say. Much knowledge 
 and amusement can be gained by the ear 
 as well as by the eye. ' Ears and no ears ' 
 might make a good tale as well as ' Eyes 
 and no eyes.' " 
 
 " He did listen the other day, papa," 
 said Lucy, '^ and heard what the gentle- 
 man told about the wreck and the gun- 
 powder : Harry repeated it to me after- 
 wards." 
 
 " As he was so well rewarded by hear- 
 ing what was entertaining, and by your 
 remembering it so kindly," said her father, 
 ** I hope he will continue to attend to con- 
 versation." 
 
 *' If people did not talk so much non- 
 
285 
 
 sense generally, in company, sir," said 
 Harry, '^ I should listen oftener." 
 
 " Pick out the sense : if you try to do 
 so, you will always find some golden 
 grains of sense even in an ocean of non- 
 sense. And suppose you should not, it 
 will be of use to your own mind to inter- 
 rupt, even by nonsense, the course of your 
 thoughts. The mind becomes stupified, 
 when it has thought too long on any one 
 point." 
 
 " True," said Harry, " so I found to-day, 
 when I was thinking about my measuring 
 wheel. When I had thought and thought 
 for a great while, I grew quite tired and 
 stupid, I could not tell what was the matter 
 with me ; I could not invent what I want- 
 ed ; and listening even to the moschettoes, 
 which I hated at the time, did me good." 
 
 " Harry is so candid," said his mother, 
 " that there is really some pleasure in find- 
 ing fault with him." 
 
 He was not like those foolish boys, who, 
 when they are told of any fault, think only 
 
286 
 
 how soon the person who is speaking will 
 have done, that they may get rid of the im- 
 mediate pain. Nor was he one of those, who 
 think only of what excuse they can make. 
 Nor yet was he one of those (the most fool- 
 ish) who grow sulky, and sit or stand like 
 statues, feeling all the time as if the night- 
 mare prevented them from stirring. It is 
 true that Harry was acquainted with this 
 disagreeable sensation, arising partly from 
 shame, and partly from pride ; but he 
 struggled against it, and threw it off as 
 soon as possible. 
 
 ** Lucy, what were you doing before all 
 this began?" asked Harry. 
 
 *' We were singing the ' Old Man in 
 the Wood,'" said Lucy, and then she 
 added, in a whisper, " should you like to 
 sing it again ? if you would, I will begin 
 it." 
 
 " I should," said he, " begin." 
 
 She began, Harry followed, and their 
 father immediately joined them. They 
 sung but badly, but they were all well 
 
287 
 
 pleased with each other, and Lucy said she 
 was now quite happy. 
 
 " There must be some nonsense mixed 
 with wisdom now and then, must not there, 
 papa?" said she, " or else one is apt to 
 grow terribly tired." 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED BY CHARLES WOOD, 
 
 f'oppin's Court, Fleet Street. 
 
r