“I dare,” said the boy.
“Then come,” said Two-Legs.
He took him by the hand and went out with him into the dark night, to find a country where there were fewer fools.
5
Two-Legs found a new country, where he and the boy settled. The people honoured him for his age and wisdom and knew nothing about his magic arts. But he occupied himself with them as before, sought and listened and thought ... whether he could sooner or later lay hold of the strange spirit who was so weak in the amber and the glass tube and the sulphur and so powerful in the thunder-storm.
Every evening, when the day’s work was done, he sat and talked with the boy, who grew in age and understanding. They were happiest when the thunder pealed. Then they felt that the mighty spirit was nearer to them: not only up there, where lightning crackled, but in the air and in everything round about.
“There is much electricity up there and only a little here below with us,” he said. “That is why the flashes strike down upon the ground.... Look, there is one darting from a cloud that has too much to one that has too little.... Oh, I understand, I understand! It is like the water that lies at a different level in two ponds: if I dig a canal between them, it will flow from that which has more into that which has less and, a moment after, it will be at the same height in both. Boy, boy, one day I will collect so much electricity that I can use it for the greatest things!”
“That you will, since you say so, Father Two-Legs,” said the boy. “But will you tell me how it is that the mighty spirit dwells in a fragile glass tube like this and not in that thick iron bar? If I were the spirit, I would rather dwell in the strong bar. But he is not there. I have rubbed the iron till my arms ached, but the spirit did not come.”