Just stop and think a bit. All such things as bulk, or width, you know
by comparison only; comparison with familiar things. So, just for
fun, go up in an imaginary balloon, about half way to that old Moon,
which has hung aloft from your birth--(and possibly a day or two in
addition)--and look down upon your "gigantic" city. How will it look?
It is a small patch of various colors; but you know that, within that
tiny patch, many thousands of your kind hurry back and forth; railway
trains crawl out to far-away districts; and, if you can pick out a
grain of dust that stands out dimly in a glow of sunlight, you may know
that it is your mansion, your cabin or your hut, according to your
financial status. Now, if that hardly shows up, how about _you_? What
kind of a dot would _you_ form in comparison? You must admit that
your past thoughts as to your own pomposity will shrink just a bit!
All this shows us that could this big World think, it wouldn't know
that such a thing as Man was on it. And Man thinks that his part in all
this unthinkably vast Cosmos is important!! Why, you poor shrimp! if
this old World wants to twitch just a bit and knock down a city or two,
or split up a group of mountains, Man, with all his brain capacity,
can only dash wildly about, dodging falling bricks. No. You wouldn't
show up from that balloon as plainly as an ant, in crawling around our
Capitol building at Washington.
But why all this talk about our own inconspicuosity? It is simply
brought up to accompany Nancy's thoughts as that train shot across
country; for Nancy, until now, had not known anything approaching such
a trip. So this happy, happy trip, back upon which many a woman looks,
with a romantic thrill, was astounding to such a girl. From Branton
Hills to San Francisco; a boat to Honolulu, Manila, Shanghai, Hong
Kong, Colombo, and finally Cairo. Ah! Cairo!! In thinking of it you
naturally bring up two words--"Pyramids" and "Sphinx", words familiar
from school days. Practically from birth, Nancy, along with millions
of folks, had known that famous illustration of a thing half Lion and
half woman; and a mountainous mass of masonry, built for a king's tomb.
So, standing right in front of both, Nancy and Frank got that wondrous
thrill coming from attaining a long, long wish. From Cairo to Italy,
Spain, London, Paris, and that grand Atlantic sail, landing at Boston,
and hustling by fast train (but _how_ slow it did go!!) to Branton
Hills! So, along about Thanksgiving Day, about half of its population
was again at its big railway station, for Nancy was coming back. (And
Frank, too, if anybody should ask you.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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