"Best let 'em bide. They be doing the ground good," said Master. "It
bain't nothing serious, varmer," he went on. "Yew and Mary will be well
again to-morrow. Don't ye drink and 'twill be all right. The peas will
die of what us calls instantaneous combustion. If yew was to swallow
anything to pizen 'em 'twould pizen yew tu. Aw now, you might rub a
little ammonia on your bellies just to mak' 'em feel uneasy-like. I'll
get ye a drop in a bottle. Nothing's no trouble, varmer."
"It taketh a scholard to understand it," said Mary. "When he putched
a-telling I couldn't sense 'en, but I knows now it bain't serious. A
brave larned man be Master. There bain't many like 'en."
The invalids were pretty well by that evening. Their pains were
departing, and Mary was able to hunt again for Old Sal and bewail her
lost groceries, while Peter turned his attention towards establishing
electric light into the two hut-circles. He had brought back from
Tavistock two little bottles with taps, hairpins, and bits of rope
complete, also mystic circles made of china, which, he had been
informed, were used for securing the completed article to the roof, and
nearly a mile of thin wire, which he had picked up very cheaply, as it
was getting rusty.
The wire had excited Mary's amazement, but Peter refused to give her any
information concerning it. He had enjoyed an instructive conversation
with the man in the shop, who perceived that Peter was a savage, but did
not on that account refuse to sell him the required articles. Peter
asked how the light was made, and the answer "with water," or words to
that effect, so stunned him that he heard nothing for the next few
moments. If it could be true that fire and heat were made out of water
he was prepared to believe anything. The man seemed to be serious and
not trying to make a fool of him; for he went on to explain that the
light was conveyed from the water by a wire which communicated with the
little bottles--he showed Peter that what he had mistaken for a piece of
rope was in reality twisted wires--over any distance, although more
power would be required if the house to be lighted was far from the
water. The word "power" was explained to Peter's satisfaction as meaning
a strong current, preferably a waterfall. The entire art of electrical
engineering became clear to Peter at once. He remembered how the
ignorant little girl in the lodging-house had mentioned the telegraph
wires which had been put about the house. The child could not be
expected to understand what the wires were for--Peter had not much
tolerance for such stupidity--but it was evident, after the shopman's
explanation, that those wires communicated with the Tavy and brought the
light into the lodging-house from its waters. If the river at Tavistock,
which is wide and shallow, could give forth light of such excellent
quality, what might not be expected from the rushing torrent of Tavy
Cleave? Peter perceived that every difficulty had been smoothed away.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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