and when he came
home, Mr. ---- gave his children a description of the giant. His
height, he said, was about eight feet. _S----_ (a boy of five years
old) asked whether this giant had lived much longer than other men.

_Father._ "No; why did you think he had lived longer than other men?"

_S----._ "Because he was so much taller."

_Father._ "Well."

_S----._ "And he had so much more time to grow."

_Father._ "People, after a certain age, do not grow any more. Your
sister M----, and I, and your mother, have not grown any taller since
you can remember, have we?"

_S----._ "No; but I have, and B----, and C----."

_Father._ "Yes; you are children. Whilst people are growing, they are
children; after they have done growing they are called men and women."

(April, '92.) At tea-time, to-day, somebody said that hot chocolate
scalds worse than hot tea or hot water. Mr. ---- asked his children if
they could give any reason for this. They were silent.

Mr. ----. "If water be made as hot as it can be made, and if chocolate
be made as hot as it can be made, the chocolate will scald you the
most. Can you tell me why!"

_C----_ (a girl between eight and nine years old.) "Because there is
oil, I believe, in the chocolate; and because it is thicker, and the
parts closer together, than in tea or water."

_Father._ "What you say is true; but you have not explained the reason
yet. Well, _H----_."

_H----_ (a boy between nine and ten.) "Because there is water in the
bubbles."

_Father._ "Water in the bubbles? I don't understand. Water in what
bubbles?"

_H----._ "I thought I had always seen, when water boils, that there
are a great many little bubbles upon the top."

_Father._ "Well; but what has that to do with the question I asked
you?"

_H----._ "Because the cold air that was in the bubbles, would cool the
water next them, and then"--(he was quite confused, and stopped.)

_B----_ (a girl of ten or eleven years old) spoke next. "I thought
that chocolate was much thicker than water, and there were more parts,
and those parts were closer together, and each could hold but a
certain quantity of heat; and therefore chocolate could be made hotter
than water."

_Father._ "That is a good chemical idea. You suppose that the
chocolate and tea can be _saturated_ with heat. But you have none of
you yet told the reason."

The children were all silent.

_Father._ "Can water ever be made hotter than boiling hot?"

_B----._ "