[Illustration: Six balls hanging by strings from a rod and bouncing against each other, but with only the two balls on the ends moving.] Tom observed, that when the first ball struck the second, it received a blow, in return, which destroyed its motion; and that the second ball, although it did not appear to move, must have struck against the third, the reaction of which set it at rest; that the action of the third ball must have been destroyed by the reaction of the fourth, and so on, until motion was communicated to the last ball, which not being reacted upon flew off. Mr. Seymour commended Tom for his explanation; but he begged him to understand that such an effect only occurred when the balls were elastic; and he proceeded to exhibit the difference between elastic and inelastic bodies by another experiment. “When you raise one of these inelastic balls, made of clay, out of the perpendicular, and let it fall against the other, E, the action and reaction not being augmented by the force of elasticity, are insufficient to destroy the motion of the former; only part of the motion D will, therefore, be communicated to E, and the two balls will move together to _d e_, which are less distant from the vertical line than the ball D was before it fell.” [Illustration: Two suspended, inelastic balls, labeled D and E , showing positions after D collides with E] Before we close this chapter, we cannot resist the pleasure of informing our readers that Major Snapwell, in company with his legal adviser, had quitted Overton, for the purpose of making such preliminary arrangements as the purchase of an estate must necessarily require. It is not our intention to accompany them; nor shall we travel over the plains of parchment, nor wade through the rivers of ink, which separate the confines of verbal agreement and legal possession; but claiming the prerogative of authors, we shall dip our wing in the cup of inspiration, and by a single flourish of our feathered talisman, at once put the worthy Major in the undisturbed possession of his newly purchased mansion, and instal him in one of Daw’s most comfortable elbow-chairs, surrounded by all the luxuries of polished life. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: Two boys causing havoc by upsetting a washerwoman.] CHAPTER XI.