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It had taken soether properly; it wasn’t much like a modern version, particularly when reduced to its cos’s handsonizable, and with that as a starting point, I had ed to fit the optical bits into the stand without h, had been ot it working

"What are ye doing, Sassenach?" Jamie, with a piece of toast in one hand, paused in the doorway

"Seeing things," I said, adjusting the focus

"Oh, aye? What sorts of things?" He cahosties, I trust I will have had enough o’ those"

"Co back froh the eyepiece, screwing up his other eye in concentration

He squinted for a ave an exclas with tails, swi at ain

I felt a warlow of pride in my new toy

"Isn’t it marvelous?"

"Aye, marvelous," he said, absorbed "Look at the and writhing against one another--and such aunder his breath, then straightened up, shaking his head in a, Sassenach Ye’d told ined theht have wee teeth, and they don’t--but I never kent they would have such handso wee tails, or swianisain h--they’re sperms"

"They’re what?"

He looked quite blank

"Sperms," I said patiently "Male reproductive cells You knohat ht just possibly choke His mouth opened, and a very pretty shade of rose suffused his countenance

"Yehi tea into a clean beaker and handed it to hih, his eyes fixed on theout of the eyepiece at anyacross the floor at our feet

"Sperorously, then turned tojust occurred to him

"Whose are they?" he asked, his tone one of darkest suspicion

"Erwell, yours, of course" I cleared my throat, mildly embarrassed "Who else’s would they be?"

His hand darted reflexively between his legs, and he clutched hiet them?"

"How do you think?" I said, rather coldly "I woke up in custody of the"

His hand relaxed, but a deep blush of mortification stained his cheeks dark criulp, tehed

There was a moment of deep silence

"Iumdidna ken they could stay alive," he said at last "Errrrmoutside, I mean"

"Well, if you leave them in a splotch on the sheet to dry out, they don’t," I said, estured at the small, covered beaker, with its small puddle of whitish fluid--"and they’ll do for a few hours In their proper habitat, though, they can live for up to a week aftererrelease"

"Proper habitat," he repeated, looking pensive He darted a quick glance at me "Ye do mean--"

"I do," I said, with some asperity

"Mmphm" At this point, he recalled the piece of toast he still held, and took a bite, chewing meditatively

"Do folk know about this? Now, I mean?"

"Knohat? What sperm look like? Almost certainly Microscopes have been around for well over a hundred years, and the first thing anyone with a workingwithin reach Given that the inventor of the microscope was a avein a marked manner