“‘Pa?’
“‘Yes, Douglas.’
“‘What is science?’
“‘It’s—it’s—ah, well, the art of explaining things, my boy.’
“‘Does it tell everything?’
“‘Yes, my boy.’
“‘Then what killed the Dead Sea, Pa?’”
Up to this point Mr. Dacre had listened gravely enough, but here he had to burst into a roar of laughter. When his merriment had subsided, he wished to know how the professor had dealt with such a “stumper.”
“What did he say to that, Tom?”
“Well,” laughed Tom, “I guess it was too much for him, for I heard him call Mrs. Bijur and ask her to give the lad a cookie. He said the boy’s brain was so large it was eating up his mind.”