"O father," said Rollo, "I don't think they would be as big as that. The crow's wings are not longer than his body, and so mine would not be longer than my body."
"Perhaps you never saw a crow's body," said his father. "His feathers and his tail, which are very light, swell out his body, and make it appear much larger than it really is. I presume his wings, when they are spread, are twice or three times as long as his body. If you had wings in proportion, it would be with the utmost difficulty that you could use them at all. You certainly could not strike the air with them fast enough to pull yourself up by them."
"I did not think that the birds pulled themselves up by the air," said Nathan. "I did not know that the air was anything real."
"O yes; it is something real," said his father.
"I've seen birds fly without moving their wings at all," said Rollo.
"Yes," said his father, "and so have I seen a stone."
"A stone!" repeated Rollo.
"What, a stone fly?" said Nathan.
"Yes," replied his father; "did you never see a stone fly through the air, without any wings at all?"
"Why, yes," said Rollo, "when somebody threw it."