it, and setting fire to the gas that would come from the mouth of
the pipe. We should find the flame very hot, but having scarcely
any brightness. I should like you to see the curious qualities of
hydrogen, particularly how light it is, so as to carry things up in
the air; and I wish I had a small balloon to fill with it, and make go
up to the ceiling, or a bag-pipe full of it to blow soap-bubbles with,
and show how much faster they rise than common ones, blown with the
breath."

"So do I," interposed Master Tom.

"And so," resumed Harry, "hydrogen, you know, uncle, is part of water,
and just one-ninth part."

"As hydrogen is to water, so is a tailor to an ordinary individual,
eh?" Mr. Bagges remarked.

"Well, now then, uncle, if hydrogen is the tailor's part of the
water, what are the other eight parts? The iron turnings used to make
hydrogen in the gun-barrel, and rusted, take just those eight parts
from the water in the shape of steam, and are so much the heavier.
Burn iron turnings in the air, and they make the same rust, and gain
just the same in weight. So the other eight parts must be found in the
air for one thing, and in the rusted iron turnings for another, and
they must also be in the water; and now the question is, how to get at
them?"

"Out of the water? Fish for them, I should say," suggested Mr. Bagges.

"Why, so we can," said Harry. "Only, instead of hooks and lines, we