run a little now, it will flood me here, where
I am digging, and make all muddy; and I cannot finish my canal so
easily; so it will spoil my work. Then, besides, we want to see the
water run in a torrent; but if I let you dig a little trench along
across the neck, so as to let it off by degrees, you will not take half
as much pleasure in seeing it run, as you will to wait until it is all
ready. So it will spoil your play."

Rollo did not reply to this, and Jonas went on digging.

"Well," said Rollo, after a short pause, "I wish, Jonas, you would tell
me how the bubbles of air get down into the mud, at the bottom of the
brook."

"I don't know," said Jonas.

"It seems to me it is very extraordinary," said Rollo.

"It is somewhat extraordinary. I have thought of another extraordinary
phenomenon somewhat like it."

"What is that?" said Rollo.

"The rain," replied Jonas.

"The rain?" said Rollo; "how?"

"Why, the rain," replied Jonas, "is water coming down out of the air;
and the bubbles are air coming up out of the water."

"Then it is exactly the opposite of it," said Rollo.

"Yes," said Jonas.

"But you said it was _like_ it."

"Well, and so it is," Jonas replied.

"Like it, and yet exactly opposite to it! Jonas, that is impossible."

"Why, yes," said Jonas, "the air gets down into the water, and you
wonder how it can, when it is so much lighter than water. So water gets
up into the air, and I wonder how it can, when it is so much heavier. So
that the difficulty is just about the same."

"No," said Rollo, "it is just about opposite."

"Very well," said Jonas. Jonas never would dispute. Whenever any body
said any thing that he did not think was correct, he would sometimes try
to explain it; but then, if they persisted, he would generally say "Very
well," and that would prevent all dispute. This is an excellent way to
prevent disputes, or to end them when they are begun.

While Jonas was digging slowly along through the neck of land, Rollo was
rambling about among the bushes, and at length Jonas heard a sudden
scream from him. Jonas looked up, and saw Rollo scrambling away from a
little thicket, and then presently stopping to look back, apparently
frightened.

"What now, Rollo?" said Jonas.

"Here is a great hornets' nest," said Rollo.

Jonas laid down his spade, and went to where Rollo was. Rollo pointed to
a little bush, where Jonas saw, hanging to a bough, not far from the
ground, a small hor