If we hear it twelve or thirteen seconds after, it has travelled twelve or thirteen times four hundred yards, or about half a mile, and so on." "But what has that to do with your pulse ?" "In the first place, I am in perfect health, am I not ?" "I hope so, Master Jack." "Then when our systems are in good order, the pulse, keeping fractions out of view, beats once in every second; and consequently, though we do not always carry a watch, we always have our arteries about us, and may therefore always reckon time." "Now I understand." "Ah! then we are to escape this time without the 'Mariner's March.'" "It appears, Master Jack, that you have turned philosopher as well as your brothers.

Can you tell me what causes lightning ?" "Yes, I can, Willis.

You must know, in the first place, that all the layers of the atmosphere are, more or less, charged with electricity." "Ask him how," said Fritz drily.
"Ah, you hope to puzzle me," replied Jack, "but thanks to Mr.Wolston, I am too well up in physics to be easily driven off my perch, and therefore may safely take my turn in philosophising." "Well, we are listening." "The air, by means of the vapor it contains, absorbs electricity from terrestrial bodies, and so becomes a sort of reservoir of this invisible fluid.

All chemical combinations evolve electricity, the air collects it and stores it up in the clouds.

There, worshipful brother, your question is answered." "Good, go on." "Well, Willis, you must know, in the second place, the clouds are very good fellows, and share with each other the good things they possess.
When one cloud meets another, the one over-supplied with this fluid and the other in its normal state, there is an immediate interchange of courtesies, the negative electricity of the one is exchanged for the positive of the other." "There does not appear, however, to be much generosity in this transaction, since the surcharged cloud does not cede its superfluous abundance without a consideration." "It is very rarely that philanthropy amongst us goes much further," remarked Fritz.
"No, everybody is not like Willis," rejoined Jack, "who acts like a prince, and gives legs of mutton gratis to hyenas and tigers.