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Page 6
"No, Dotty; the world is round, but you wouldn't know it by the looks of
it. Wherever I've been, the land seems flat, except the hills, and so
does the water, all but the waves."
As the captain's son said this, he looked pityingly at his little
companion, wondering how she happened to be so silly as to suppose a
ship ever went "tip-side up." But he was mistaken if he considered Dotty
a simpleton. The child had never gone to school. Her parents believed
there would be time enough yet for her to learn a great many things; and
her ignorance had never distressed them half so much as her faults of
temper.
"Did you ever go as far as Boston before?" pursued Adolphus, rather
grandly, in his turn.
"No, I never," replied Dotty, meekly; "but Prudy has."
"So I presume you haven't been in Spain? It was there I bought my
beautiful rabbit. Were you ever in the Straits of Malacca?" continued
he, roguishly.
"No--o. I didn't know I was."
"Indeed? Nor in the Bay of Palermo? The Italians call it the Golden
Shell."
"I don't _s'pose_ I ever," replied Dotty, with a faint effort to keep up
appearances; "but I went to _Quoddy_ Bay once!"
"So you haven't seen the _loory_? It is a beautiful bird, and talks
better than a parrot. I have one at home."
"O, have you?" said Dotty, in a tone of the deepest respect.
"Yes; then there is the _mina_, a brown bird, larger than a crow;
converses quite fluently. You have heard of a mina, I dare say."
Dotty shook her head in despair. She was so overwhelmed by this time,
that, if Adolphus had told of going with Captain Lally to the moon in a
balloon, she would not have been greatly surprised.
A humorous smile played around the boy's mouth. Observing his little
companion's extreme simplicity, he was tempted to invent some marvellous
stories for the sake of seeing her eyes shine.
"I can explain it to her afterwards," said he to his conscience.
"Did you ever hear of the Great Dipper, Dotty?"
"I don't know's I did. No."
"You don't say so! Never heard of the Great Dipper! Your sister Prudy
has, I'm sure. It is tied to the north pole, and you can dip water with
it."
"Is it big?"
"No, not very. About the size of a tub."
"A dipper as big as a tub?" repeated Dotty, slowly.
"Yes, with the longest kind of handle."
"I couldn't lift it?"
"No, I should judge not."
"Who tied it to the north pole?"
"I don't know. Columbus, perhaps. You remember he discovered the world?"
Dotty brightened.
"O, yes, I've heard about that! Susy read it in a book."
"Well, I'll tell you how it was. There had been a world, you see; but
people had lost the run of it, and didn't know where it was, after the
flood. And then Columbus went in a ship and discovered it."
"He did?"
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