“There are two good reasons,” he replied. “The first is, it will spoil my work, and the second is, it will spoil your play.”
“What do you mean by that?” said Rollo.
“Why, if I let the water run a little now, it will flood me here, where I am digging, and make all muddy; and I cannot finish my canal so easily; so it will spoil my work. Then, besides, we want to see the water run in a torrent; but if I let you dig a little trench along across the neck, so as to let it off by degrees, you will not take half as much pleasure in seeing it run, as you will to wait until it is all ready. So it will spoil your play.”
Rollo did not reply to this, and Jonas went on digging.
“Well,” said Rollo, after a short pause, “I wish, Jonas, you would tell me how the bubbles of air get down into the mud, at the bottom of the brook.”
“I don’t know,” said Jonas.
“It seems to me it is very extraordinary,” said Rollo.
“It is somewhat extraordinary. I have thought of another extraordinary phenomenon somewhat like it.”
“What is that?” said Rollo.