It was not that we particularly wanted a
frost, but that we felt that, if it was going to freeze, it might
as well do it properly--so as to show other nations that England
was still to be reckoned with. And there was also the feeling
that if the thermometer could get down to 11 deg. it might some
day get down to zero; and then perhaps the Thames would be frozen
over again at Westminster, and the papers would be full of
strange news, and--generally speaking--life would be a little
different from the ordinary. In a word, there would be a chance
of something "happening"-- which, I take it, is why one buys a
thermometer and watches it so carefully.
Of course, every nice thermometer has a device for registering
the maximum and minimum temperatures, which can only be set with
a magnet. This gives you an opportunity of using a magnet in
ordinary life, an opportunity which occurs all too seldom.
Indeed, I can think of no other occasion on which it plays any
important part in one's affairs. It would be interesting to know
if the sale of magnets exceeds the sale of thermometers, and if
so, why?--and it would also be interesting to know why magnets
are always painted red, as if they were dangerous, or belonged to
the Government, or--but this is a question into which it is
impossible to go now. My present theme is thermometers.
Our thermometer (which went down to 11 deg.
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