"I asked if Barbican couldn't write.

In that question I see nothing whatever to laugh at.

Can't a man write without being obliged to send his letters ?" "This is all nonsense," said the Doctor.

"What's the use of a man writing to you if he can't send you what he writes ?" "What's the use of his sending it to you if he can have it read without that trouble ?" answered the little Midshipman in a confident tone.

"Is there not a telescope at Long's Peak?
Doesn't it bring the Moon within a few miles of the Rocky Mountains, and enable us to see on her surface, objects as small as nine feet in diameter?
Well! What's to prevent Barbican and his friends from constructing a gigantic alphabet?
If they write words of even a few hundred yards and sentences a mile or two long, what is to prevent us from reading them?
Catch the idea now, eh ?" They did catch the idea, and heartily applauded the little Middy for his smartness.