There is more to it

There is a sequel to yesterday's story. When the thermometer broke, I wondered why, because if I pushed it too hard to the sheet it had to be its head(bulb) that was broken. But I found only the end of the scale, the opposit to the bulb was broken. I thought it out and got to a conclusion that the mercury expanded beyond its limit due to a too high temperature as the result of too much friction heat. When I made the hypothesis I wanted to cary out an experiment to validate it.
A few days later when my mother was out I took out a new thermometer and turned on a gas stove. I put it 30cm over the fire. The reading went up smoothly. 37, 38......, 41, 42 and when the mercury column reached its limit, it made the "clink" sound and the thermometer broke at its top. Yes! my theory was validated! At this moment, some of the mercury dropped on to the heated surface of the gas stove. Smoke came off. In a mild panic, I turned off the stove. There were a couple of dull silver spots where the mercury droplets fell and evaporated. I collected tiny balls of mercury on the floor. When I joined them together it became a bigger one, which I had always admired. I don't remember what I did with it but I guess I threw it into a garbage bin.
My mother told me nothing but "you careless boy" or something when I told her I had broken the thermometer again. She didn't seem to suspect anything when she knew two thermometers were broken in a matter of a week. She has been easygoing all her life, which for that matter has made herself as well as her daughters and son happy.
The poisonous nature of mercury got fussed about these days. But when I was a child it was just like a everyday commodity. How fascinating it was to me as a child. It is liquid yet it is a metal. It rolls around on the ground. It agglomerates when joined together but it separates easily into small ones again. I played with it sometimes. Mercury as a metal is not poisonous at all unless you eat it. But its vapor is another story. It attacks your nerve system. When I made the experiment(?) I may have inhaled the mercury vapor from the stove. I suspect this is the main reason why I am so forgetful