"Is that so ?" "It is thought to be electricity passing through the air high up from the earth," replied Raed.

"That's what the scientific men tell us." "They can tell us that, and we shall be just as wise as we were before," said Kit.

"They can't tell us what electricity is." "Why!" exclaimed the captain, "I thought electricity was"-- "Well, what ?" said Kit, laughing.
"Why, the--the stuff they telegraph with," finished the captain a little confusedly.
"Well, what's that ?" persisted Kit.
"What _is it_ ?" repeated the captain confidently.

"Why, it is--well--Hang it! I don't know!" We all burst out laughing: the captain himself laughed,--his case was so very nearly like everybody's who undertakes to talk about the wondrous, subtle element.

By the by, his definition of it--viz., that it is "the stuff we telegraph with"-- strikes me as being about the best one I ever heard.