[I. THE NAME OF MY BOOK]
[II. THINKING AND LAUGHING]
[III. THE SCHEMING SPIDER]
[IV. GENIUS IN THE BUD]
[V. PUTTING ON AIRS]
[VI. "TRY THE OTHER END"]
[VII. THE FOX AND THE CRAB]
[VIII. THE GREEDY FLY]
[IX. CAROLINE AND HER KITTEN]
[X. "I DON'T KNOW"]
[XI. THE LEARNED GEESE]
[XII. THE WRONG WAY]
[XIII. THE RIGHT WAY]
[XIV. THE OLD GOAT AND HIS PUPIL]
[XV. ON BARKING DOGS]
ILLUSTRATIONS.
[THE FOX AND THE CRAB (Frontispiece)]
[THE SPIDER'S INVITATION]
[THE SPIDER'S TRIUMPH]
[KATE AND HER TUTOR]
[MY PRETTY KITTEN]
[THE LEARNED GEESE]
[THE OLD GOAT AND HIS PUPIL]
I.
THE NAME OF MY BOOK.
The reader, perhaps, as he turns over the first pages of this volume, is puzzled, right at the outset, with the meaning of my title, The Diving Bell. It is plain enough to Uncle Frank, and possibly it is to you; but it may not be; so I will tell you what a diving bell is, and then, probably, you can guess the reason why I have given this name to the following pages.
If you will take a common glass tumbler, and plunge it into water, with the mouth downwards, you will find that very little water will rise into the tumbler. You can satisfy yourself better about this matter, if, in the first place, you lay a cork upon the surface of the water, and then put the tumbler over it.
Did you ever try the experiment? Try it now, if you never have done so, and if you have any doubt on the subject.
You might suppose, that the cork would be carried down far below the surface of the water. But it is not so. The upper side of the cork, after you have pressed the tumbler down so low that the upper end of it is even below the surface of the water—the upper side of the cork is not wet at all.
"And what is the reason of this, Uncle Frank?"