realize that, queer as he was, Colin had read about
a great many singular things and was somehow a
very convincing sort of boy. When he held up
his head and fixed his strange eyes on you it
seemed as if you believed him almost in spite of
yourself though he was only ten years old -- going
on eleven. At this moment he was especially
convincing because he suddenly felt the fascination
of actually making a sort of speech like a
grown-up person.

"The great scientific discoveries I am going to
make," he went on, "will be about Magic. Magic
is a great thing and scarcely any one knows anything
about it except a few people in old books -- and
Mary a little, because she was born in India
where there are fakirs. I believe Dickon knows
some Magic, but perhaps he doesn't know he
knows it. He charms animals and people. I
would never have let him come to see me if he
had not been an animal charmer -- which is a
boy charmer, too, because a boy is an animal. I
am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have
not sense enough to get hold of it and make it
do things for us -- like electricity and horses and
steam."

This sounded so imposing that Ben Weatherstaff
became quite excited and really could not keep
still.

[[299]]

p298 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p299w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p300

v?