d Rollo, "we missed the first time, just because we had too
big a paper."

QUESTIONS.

Why did Jonas suppose that the stump would not burn? What was
Rollo's first mode of setting it on fire? How did it succeed?
What did Jonas do with his axe, when he came? What was the
object of this? What did he say was necessary to make fires
burn? What did Rollo at first think was the reason why the bark
went out when held over the fire? What did he next think was the
reason? How did Jonas say that different kinds of airs were
prepared? In what places did he say that choke damp was
naturally produced? How did they attempt to prepare some of this
gas? Did they succeed in preparing it? Did they succeed in their
experiment at first? What was the cause of the failure?

CHAPTER X.

GRAVITATION.

One evening, after tea, when Rollo was a pretty big boy, he came and
began to climb up into his father's lap. When he had climbed up, he took
his place astride of his father's knee, as if he were riding a horse.
His little brother Nathan came up and stood near, wanting to get up too,
only there was not room. His cousin James was there, that evening, on a
visit. He sat upon a cricket before the fire, and his mother was at the
table doing some sort of work.

"O dear me!" said Rollo's father, imitating the tone in which Rollo
sometimes uttered that exclamation.

"What, sir?" said Rollo.

"Why, I should like very well to hold you in my lap," said his father,
"if it was not for the great mighty earth, down below us."

"How?" said Rollo. He did not know what his father meant.

"Why, when you are upon my knee, the earth, the ponderous earth, pulls
you down hard and heavy upon it." So saying, he put his hands upon
Rollo's shoulders, and crowded them down, by way of showing him how the
earth acted upon him. "It pulls," he continued, "with a strong and
steady pull, all the time; and so makes you a very heavy weight."

"Is that what makes weight?" said Rollo.

"Yes," said his father. "So, if I had a monstrous stone to move, and if
I thought the earth would listen to me, and let go its hold, I might
make a speech to it thus:--

"'O earth, thou vast and ponderous ball, please to relax thy hold, for a
few minutes, upon this stone, and leave it free to move; and then Rollo
can tie a string to it, and move it easily along to the place where I
want it to lie; then thou mayst seize it again