“This is the end of my lecture,” said he, “for to-night.”
“O, father,” said Rollo, “a little more.”
“No more to-night, only to recapitulate,” said he.
“Recapitulate? what is that?”
“Why, tell you, briefly, the substance of what I have explained, so that you may remember it.”
“Well, father,” said Rollo.
“In the first place, a magnet has a peculiar and mysterious attractive power for iron, residing in its two extremities, which are called its poles; and the power which resides in one extremity is, in some way or other, opposite in its nature to that of the other extremity. Each of these poles repels a pole like itself, and attracts one different from itself, in any other magnet.”
Poor Nathan could not understand this grave, philosophical disquisition very well, and he began to get pretty sleepy. He had, however, been somewhat amused, during the greater part of the time, in seeing the corks float about upon the water, with the needles upon them. So his father took the needles off, and let him have the two floats in one of the saucers to play with, a few minutes, while Dorothy put the other things away. He asked her to put all the things away together, so that they could get them ready the next evening, and then he said that perhaps he would give them another lecture.