Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/36

 "I kimed it to see if I could hear the 'trissity," replied the injured one.

"The lek-trissity," said Madge, correcting. "You must learn to p'onounce your words popperly, dear. You 'll never be a great man if you are so careless." "I don't want to be a g'eat man," retorted Robin. "I on'y want t'understand things whats puzzlesum." "Well, does the telegraph puzzle you?"

"Oh! mos' awfully," returned Robin, with a solemn gaze of his earnest eyes, one of which was rendered fantastic by a yellow-green ring round it and a swelling underneath. "I 's kite sure I 's stood for hours beside dat post listin' to it hummin' an' bummin' like our olianarp—"

"Now, Robin, do be careful. You know mamma calls it an olian harp."

"Yes, well, like our olian h-arp, only a deal louder, an' far nicer. An' I's often said to myself, Is that the 'trissity—?"

"Lek, Robin, lek!"

"Well, yes, lek-trissity. So I thought I'd kime up an' see, for, you know, papa says the 'trissity—lek, I mean—runs along the wires—"

"But papa also says," interrupted Madge, "that the sounds you want to know about are made by the vi—the vi—"

"Bratin'," suggested the invalid.

"Yes, vibratin' of the wires."