"Duck and Drake!" exclaimed Louisa; " for goodness' sake, what can that game be?"

"I dare say your brother will not have any difficulty in explaining it to you."

Tom informed her that it was a game of water-skimming, in which any number of boys threw a stone, an oyster-shell, or a flat piece of tile, into the water; and that he whose stone rebounded the greatest number of times was the

conqueror.

"It is a very ancient game," said Mr. Seymour, "and had the vicar been present, we should have heard a learned disquisition upon it; as he, however, is unfortunately absent, I must tell you all I know upon the subject. It was called by the Greeks Epostrakismos,* and was anciently played with flat shells. Now it is evident that the water must, under certain conditions, possess some degree of elasticity, or the stone could not rebound (15); but I shall have occasion to revert to the subject hereafter."

"And are my marbles elastic?" asked Tom.

66

Undoubtedly; but not to the same extent as your ball. There," said Mr. Seymour, throwing his ball against the wall, 66 see how it rebounds."

66

"The return of the ball," observed Tom, was, I suppose, owing to its elasticity; and I now understand why one filled with air rebounds so much better than one stuffed with bran or wool."

6

"You are quite right; and the return of the ball, after having struck the wall, affords an example of what is termed reflected motion, upon which I shall have to remark when we come to the interesting subject of Compound Forces; but at present, my only wish is to render the property of elasticity intelligible to you. It is a force of very extensive application; there is scarcely a machine wherein the elasticity of one or more solids is not essentially concerned. Nature, also, avails herself of this proPollux, lib. ix. c. 7; also in Minucius Felix, Lugd. Bat. 1652, p. 3.

*

H

perty to accomplish many of her purposes. Fleas and locusts are enabled to jump two hundred times the height of their own bodies by means of a springy membrane, easily visible by a microscope; so that, supposing the same relative force to be infused into the body of a man six feet high, he would be enabled to leap three times the height of St. Paul's. The hinder legs of the flea are also much longer than the fore ones; when about to leap it bends them towards the body, and then, by suddenly extending them, effects the leap. The Industrious Fleas,' lately exhibited in London, were deprived of this power by having the hinder legs amputated at the knee-joint."

"I suppose," said Tom, "that it is by some such spring shrimps are enabled to leap to the tops of cataracts, as I have read in my work on Natural History."

"Many species of fish are thus enabled to leap, by bending their bodies strongly, and then suddenly unbending them with an elastic spring; and the long-tailed crayfish, and the common shrimp, leap by extending their tails, after they have been bent under their bodies:—but the most striking example of this kind is the leap of the salmon; just under the cataract, and against the stream, he will rush for some yards, and rise perpendicularly out of the spray twelve or fourteen feet; and, amidst the noise of the water, he may be heard striking against the rock with a sound like the clapping of hands; if he find a temporary lodgment on the shelving rock, he will lie quivering and preparing for another summerset, until he reaches the top of the cataract; thus at once exhibiting the elasticity of his bones and the power of his muscles."

"Nature also avails herself of this property for accomplishing many purposes in the vegetable kingdom; the regular dispersion and sowing of the seeds of several plants is effected by a spring, which is wound sometimes round the outside, and sometimes round the inside of the case in which the seeds are contained." (16)

"We will now conclude our diversions," said Mr. Seymour, "with an exhibition of a very striking description. Here," cried he, as he removed a small piece of apparatus from a box which stood on the table, "is a toy, at which the sternest philosopher, nay, even Heraclitus, of weeping memory, could not refrain from laughing."

He then displayed a small ball of Indian rubber, on which was painted an exact resemblance of the worthy vicar, executed under the direction of Mr. Seymour, by that inimitable artist, George Cruikshank. The ball was connected with an air syringe, by which it was easily distended. It gradually increased in magnitude, swelling, like the gourd of Jonah, as the inflation proceeded, and the countenance of the vicar progressively enlarged to the size of the full moon, without the least alteration in the character or expression of his features.

"I declare," said Mr. Seymour, "the vicar improves upon acquaintance."

"It must be acknowledged that you have puffed him into consequence," observed Mrs. Seymour.

The countenance had, after a short time, swelled to ten times its original dimensions: the children deafened Mr. Seymour with their shouts, and the good-humoured clergyman was actually convulsed with laughter. The stop-cock was now turned; the elastic bladder became smaller and smaller, and the features underwent a corresponding diminution, until they once again assumed their original dimensions.

"You perceive, my dear Sir, that I make you look small again."

"That is by no means an unusual effect of your jokes," replied the vicar.

"Now, Tom," said his father," it is for you to explain the nature of the exhibition you have just witnessed." Tom proceeded accordingly.

"The bladder was highly elastic, and therefore readily

yielded to the pressure of the air, and became distended. As soon, however, as the pressure was removed, the air was driven out again with force, and the particles of the Indian rubber returned to their former condition. But I observed one circumstance which I do not understand," said Tom: "when you first turned the stop-cock, the air rushed out with great violence, and the ball diminished very rapidly; but it gradually slackened, until, at last, the bladder could scarcely be seen to contract."

"I rejoice to find that you were so observant," said his father: "the effect you noticed depended upon a general law of elasticity. Elastic bodies, in the recovery of their forms from a state of compression, after the removal of the compressing force, exert a greater power at first than at last, so that the whole progress of restoration is a retarded motion."

The vicar, who had listened with profound attention to the explanation which the boy had offered, rushed forward at its conclusion, and clasping him in his arms, declared, that a first-class man of Trinity could not have succeeded better.

birds

"But let us now, if you please, Mr. Seymour, suspend our researches: recollect," said the vicar, "that your are, as yet, scarcely fledged; and they will, therefore, make greater advances by short flights frequently repeated,. than by uninterrupted progression."

We heartily concur in this opinion, and shall, therefore, terminate the chapter.

CHAPTER VI.

THE ARRIVAL OF MAJOR SNAPWELL, AND THE BUSTLE IT OCCASIONED. -THE MAIDEN LADIES OF OVERTON PERPLEXED, BUT NOT SUBDUED. THE VICAR'S INTERVIEW WITH THE STRANGER. THE OBJECT OF THE LATTER IN VISITING OVERTON.—A CURIOUS DISCUSSION. A WORD OR TWO ADDRESSED TO FOX-HUNTERS. VERBAL CORRUPTIONS. SOME GEOMETRICAL DEFINITIONS. AN

INSTRUCTIVE ENIGMA.

As the maiden ladies of Overton were regaling themselves with a sociable dish of tea and chat, the conversation was abruptly interrupted by the appearance of a chariot-andfour, that passed along the road with luxurious speed, and which, as Miss Kitty Ryland declared, announced, by the dignified suavity of its roll, that the personage it conveyed must be of superior rank.

"Those," exclaimed she, "who cannot at once distinguish such 'spirit-stirring' sounds from the discordant rattle of a plebeian chaise, deserve to wear the ears of Midas."

This extraordinary subtlety of Miss Ryland's ears is said to have been conferred upon them in her early days, by those universal promoters of bodily vigour, air and exercise, of which they had received the combined advantage by the ingenious habit of listening to whispers through a certain pneumatic apparatus, familiarly termed a keyhole. In farther proof of the fidelity and alertness of her auditory establishment, we may just state, that, on passing Doseall's shop, she never failed to distinguish, by the sound of the mortar, whether the medicines under preparation were