Jack smiled, and nodded.
"And now," continued Ned, "how would you go to work to introduce it? You wouldn't like to take it and introduce it to the public yourself, would you?—on shares, you know,—you take half of the profits, and we half."
Jack said his business engagements wouldn't permit him to go into it at present.
"Then we must manage it ourselves. Where would you advise us to put it first?"
"On a tall hickory-tree in Burke's woods," said Jack.
"Why so?" said Ned.
"Because the great trouble's going to be with the lightning that's left over. You don't know what that may do."
"I'm afraid the invention doesn't look practical to you," said Ned.
Before Jack could answer, Isaac Holman appeared at the door of the box, with a Latin grammar under his arm. At that time of day, there was an interval of an hour and a half when no train passed, and Isaac had arranged to come and take of Jack a daily lesson in Latin.
"I see it's time for your school to begin; we'll finish talking about this some other day," said Ned, as he hastily thrust the paper into his pocket. For he didn't want Isaac (nor anybody else, I guess) to know about it.