“Rollo,” said Jonas, “when it rains, the best way is to let it rain; for there is no knowing what good may come of it.”
“I don’t think any good can come to us,” said Rollo, “to be out in this storm, and night coming on. I should think that you might drive faster.”
Jonas was driving pretty fast, and the rattling of the wheels made so much noise, that Rollo’s father and mother did not hear what he and Jonas were saying. Nor did Rollo hear the conversation in which his father and mother were engaged. They were, in fact, discussing the expediency of not attempting to get home that evening, but of stopping, instead, at a little village a few miles before them. As it was growing cold and late, and as there was every appearance of an approaching storm, they concluded to do this; and so, to Rollo’s surprise, when they came into the village, his father said to Jonas,—
“Jonas, you may drive up to this hotel on the right; we are going to stop here for the night.”
Jonas and Rollo were both glad to hear this. Jonas drove up to the door, and Rollo and his father and mother were soon transferred from their places in the carryall, which were beginning to be cold, and cheerless, and uncomfortable, to a pleasant little parlor, with a bright fire in the fireplace, and a table in the middle of the room spread for tea.
Now, it happened that, in this little parlor, the fire was made in what might be called a fireplace-stove, that is, a stove made in the form of a fireplace. It stood out upon the hearth, and from the top of it a stove pipe ascended towards the top of the room, and there passed back into the chimney.
The fire was not built in this room until the party which was to occupy it arrived, but the room became warm very quick. Rollo was surprised that the room became warm so quick, and his father said that such an arrangement as that, namely, a stove standing out upon the hearth, with a pipe above, warmed a room very quickly; and one reason was, that it operated by conduction as well as by radiation, whereas a fire in a common fireplace could only warm the room by radiation. Then Rollo wanted to know what conduction and radiation meant. His father explained them to him while they were waiting for the tea to be brought in.
“There are two ways by which heat moves,” said his father. “One way is by shooting swiftly through the air like light. Hold your hand up before the fire.”
So Rollo held his hand up before the fire as his father had directed.
“Do you feel the warmth of the fire upon your hand?”