send telegrams and so
on. I was a little doubtful about the seeing things underground, but I
soon found that unless I--so to say--turned on the tap, and specially
wished and tried to use the power, it did not interfere with my ordinary
seeing. When I did, it seemed to come forward from the back of my eyes,
and was stronger than the day before. I could see rabbits in their
burrows and followed the roots of one oak-tree very deep down. Once it
threatened to be awkward, when I stooped to pick up a silver coin in the
street, and grazed my knuckle against a paving stone, under which, of
course, it was.

So much for that. By the way, I had taken a look at the box after
breakfast, I found (not very much to my surprise) that the lid was as
tight on it as when I found it first.

After dinner that evening I put out the light--the moon being now
bright--placed the box on the table, washed my hands, opened it and,
shutting my eyes, put my hand on one of the jars at random and took it
out. As I had rather expected, I heard a little rattle as I did so, and
feeling in the compartment, I found a little, a very little, spoon. All
was well. Now to see which jar chance or the plant had chosen for my
first experiment. I took it to the window: it was the one marked
_aures_--ears--and the spoon had on the handle a letter A. I opened the
jar. The lid fitted close but not over tightly. I put in the spoon as
the old man had done, as near as I could remember. It brought out a very
small drop of thick stuff with which I touched first my right ear and
then my left. When I had done so I looked at the spoon. It was perfectly
dry. I put it and the jar back, closed the box, locked it up, and, not
knowing in the least what to expect, went to the open window and put my
head out.

For some little time I heard nothing. That was to be expected, and I was
not in the least inclined to distrust the jar. Then I was rewarded; a
bat flew by, and I, who have not heard a bat even squeak these twenty
years, now heard this one say in a whistling angry tone, "Would you,
would you, _I've_ got you--no, drat, drat." It was not a very exciting
remark, but it was enough to show me that a whole new world (as the
books say) was open to me.

This, of course, was only a beginning. There were some plants and
flowering shrubs under the window, and though I could see nothing, I
began to hear voices--two voices--talking among them. They sounded
young: of course they were any