He was very curious to discover what real people know, so that he also might learn; but it seemed to him that he would never be able to read fast enough, and so he began to ask his Godmother to teach him from her own knowledge. She soon perceived that in some things, like mathematics and physics, he was much better educated than herself; but of other subjects, such as history and geography, he knew nothing at all. So she told him how the earth was shaped and about the sun, moon and stars. She explained how the sun rose in the East and then there was day; and after it had crossed the sky and set in the West, then night came. She told him that in the Far North there is perpetual snow on great, white plains, so broad that you can not see across them; and in the South great deserts of sand, without water, where lions and tigers roam and it is so hot that the people become black like the king in the altar. Between all the countries stretch seas of salt water, which are filled with strange monsters and across which travel large ships. Little Tom listened breathlessly, and then was eager to learn how people came to know all these things. His Godmother told him that there were famous travelers who went all over the earth, experiencing many dangers, and then came home to describe what they had seen. That night, Little Tom in his excitement could not sleep for a long, long while and, finally, when he began to doze, he dreamed that he was walking through the snow, climbing the mountains that reached to the sky and crossing the primeval forests. Then he wandered in deserts and swam the sea in the midst of fierce sharks. Next day, he was all the time thinking of the great wonders of the world, and his work was not so pleasing to him. He could hardly wait for the evening to come so that he might learn more from his Godmother. When she had told him other things that she knew, he asked her where was the end of the earth. She explained that the world was round and that, if any one walked on and on, he would come to the place whence he had started. Little Tom became quite confused, for with his growing mind he could not understand how the world could be so great, or how it could be round! Neither did he know what it meant to travel. There was only one thing that he remembered and that was, if he started in one direction and kept on going, in the end he would come back home. His heart was very brave and he was not afraid of danger. He wanted very much to gain experience and do heroic deeds, even if he did not know where he was going.