XX 



MASON BEES 273 



its face in large letters the words, Storm, Rain, Fine. 

 " The barometer," began the good abbe, address- 

 ing himself to his disciples — he used a fatherly- 

 second person singular to each, — " the barometer 

 gives notice of good or bad weather. Thou seest 

 the words written here — Storm, Rain — thou seest, 

 Bastien ? " "I see," replies Bastien, the most mis- 

 chievous of the troop. He has run through his 

 book, and knows more about the barometer than 

 does his professor. " It is composed," the abbe goes 

 on, " of a curved glass tube full of mercury which 

 rises and falls according to the weather. The small 

 branch of this tube is open ; the other — the other — 

 we shall see as to the other. Bastien — Get on this 

 chair, and just feel with the tip of thy finger if the long 

 branch is open or closed. I do not quite remember." 

 Bastien goes to the chair, stands as high as he can 

 on tip-toe, and feels the top of the long column 

 with a finger tip. Then, with a slight smile under 

 the down of his dawning moustache, he replies, 

 " Yes, exactly ; yes, the long branch is open at the 

 top. I can feel the hollow." And to corroborate 

 his mendacious statement he went on moving his 

 forefinger on the top of the tube, while his co- 

 disciples, accomplices in mischief, stifled their laughter 

 as best they could. The abbd said calmly, " That 

 will do. Come down, Bastien. Gentlemen, write 

 in your notes that the long branch of the barometer 

 is open. You might forget it. I had forgotten it 

 myself." 



Thus were physics taught. Things mended, 

 however ; a master came, and came to stay, — one 

 who knew that the long branch of a barometer is 



T 



