"Oh, Cyrus, you mustn't talk like that!"
But the revolutionist went on. "Why don't they tell us things worth remembering? Look at my lesson to-day! The Island of Madagascar! Who in thunder wants to know about the products of Madagascar? Hoh! It makes me sick!"
"But, Drowsy, Madagascar is an important island and——"
"Important grandmother! Any fool can read about it. Why don't they tell me things I want to know?"
"What thing do you want to know?"
"I want to know things that other people don't know. I want to know how the earth looks when you are standing on the moon. I want to know what's lying in the mud at the bottom of the Tiber—all the bronze and gold and marble things; and what sort of people live on the other planets, and why cats and dogs can see in the dark. And if God is good and not mean—why did he make Bobby Carter a hunchback?"
"Oh, Cyrus! It's wicked to talk like that!"
"No, it isn't. I'm only asking about it. I'm only asking why teacher doesn't tell us things worth knowing. I want to know what would happen if you dug a well through the center of the earth. Would a stone keep on dropping till it came out the other side?"
"That is gravity," said Ruth in her wisest manner, glad of a chance to hold her position as mentor.
"Yes, but the name doesn't help any. If I got into a big cannon ball and was shot up into the air how many hundreds of miles would I go before I would fall back? And if you should go up in a balloon a mile high I want to know if you would stay still and see the earth going round and round beneath you or would you have to go with it—and Massachusetts always just underneath."