6
One day, the boy went into the mountains and found a lodestone, which he thought looked odd. He took it home to Two-Legs, who examined it long and closely, as he examined everything. Without thinking of it further, he began to rub the thick iron bar with the lodestone and saw, to his surprise, that the stone clung to the iron:
“Boy, what have you found?” he cried.
Henceforth, he thought of nothing but iron and copper and other metals.
He forged himself bars of iron, large and small, rubbed them with the lodestone and saw that they became electric. The spirit was in them and the spirit came out of them, but differently and not as in the glass tube and the amber and the sulphur ball.
It was no use for him to come with fluffs of down and little shreds of paper. The spirit did not catch at them. But, when he came with iron, the spirit caught hold of it and held it ever so tight.
“That is the proper, powerful spirit,” said the boy joyfully.
Two-Legs saw also that the spirit was only at the two ends of the bar which he rubbed with the lodestone. The spirit ran into the ends and stayed there and caught hold of the pieces of iron which he held out to him. In the middle of the bar there was no spirit.
One day, as he was working with a very thick bar which he had rubbed, it seemed to him that it moved without his touching it. Then he took a vessel of water, put a cork in the water and the iron bar on top of the cork.
“Look, look, it’s turning!” cried the boy.
And so it was. It turned one end to the north and the other to the south. Two-Legs shifted it, but it turned back to the same position as soon as he let go. He experimented with the other bars, but they did exactly the same. One day, he laid two side by side, each on its own cork, and saw that the north end of the one and the south end of the other attracted each other. When he brought the two north ends or the two south ends together, they at once pushed each other away.
“Look, look!” cried the boy.
Two-Legs sat, plunged in thought, and looked. Then he made a little bar, rubbed it with the lodestone and put it on a pivot, so that it could turn easily as it pleased:
“Go and give this thing to the skipper,” he said. “When he goes far out to sea and cannot sight land anywhere, he will always be able to see by it which is north and which is south and direct his course accordingly.”
Thus Two-Legs invented the compass.
But he forgot it as soon as the boy had gone with it. He thought how much stronger the spirit was in the iron than in the other things from which he had produced it and pondered how he should make the spirit obey him with all his power.
“I found the stone that did it,” said the boy, when he returned. “Give it a name, Father Two-Legs.”
As the country where he was then living was called Magnesia, Two-Legs called the stone the magnet. And he showed the boy how he could make any piece of iron into a magnet by rubbing it with another iron in which the spirit was:
“Oh, if I could only draw the spirit from up there, in the thunder-clouds, down hither with a magnet!” said Two-Legs.
He made a kite, such as boys play with, and gave it a huge long string. At the top of it he put an iron tip. Then he and the boy went and waited for the thunder to come one day; and, at last, it came.
When the thunder-storm was exactly over head, he flew the kite in the air. They stood and watched it till it disappeared right up in the thunder-clouds.
“Now hold the string, boy, if you dare,” said Two-Legs.
“I dare,” said the boy.
The lightning crackled and the thunder crashed. In the midst of it, Two-Legs, with his fingers, touched the string of the kite; and a great spark leapt upon his finger. He touched it again and again; and, each time, a new spark leapt out.
“Look, look!” he said. “I have drawn down the lightning from up there!”
“Oh, Father Two-Legs!” said the boy, shaking with fear. “Suppose the lightning had killed you!”
“It could have done,” said Two-Legs. “To play with the mighty forces of nature is dangerous. That is why I so often asked you if you were not afraid. I once had a helper who was killed by the spirit of Steam before I had learnt to conquer him. It may happen that you will fare as he did. I know myself that I am never safe from death. But I would rather die fighting to conquer the spirits than at home, in my bed, of disease.”
“So would I,” said the boy and drew himself up. “Only, I meant ... only, I don’t understand.... The lightning once struck and burnt my mother’s house. It killed my brother and my little sister; and all that we possessed was burnt: that was a calamity. Is there always a calamity when the lightning strikes? If so, why do you want to bring it down? Do you think you can imprison it and use it as you used Steam?”
“No,” said Two-Legs. “I don’t think that. I don’t know how it is to be done, but I dream, day and night, that, sooner or later, I shall succeed in preparing lightning as strong as that up there, but different nevertheless.... I want to rule over it and imprison it and compel it to labour in my service. It is only a dream as yet. It was not the lightning either that I drew down with my kite: only a little spark of the spirit that flames up there.”
“Yes, Father Two-Legs,” said the boy. “But, if you can catch a little spark, you can also catch a bigger one ... and a bigger one still ... and, at last, the whole lightning.”
Two-Legs gazed at the boy. Then he took him in his arms and kissed him:
“You’re a glorious boy,” he said. “You found the magnet and knew nothing about it. Now, in your ignorance, you have spoken a great word: come and see what you can make of it.”