"Newspapers can wait till little folk are asleep in their beds, my darlings. Besides, I have a story all ready and waiting. It is knocking at the door of my mind this very moment and saying, 'Please let me out, please let me out.' So out it must come. There, Joe, stretch yourself comfortably in that hammock; and Lucy, take the steamer chair and draw it up close by my side. Now I hope you are both ready for a visit to another part of the world. "We won't take any trunks, and there will be no sea-sickness, nor trouble of any kind. So let us start at once on a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. "Whew! Here we are safe and sound on the shores of Italy. The waves are rolling gently and the air is sweet and pleasant. "A dark-skinned boy is sitting on the edge of the wharf and looking out to sea. He is watching the ships coming into port. He can see a tiny speck in the distance but he knows it is the top of some mast. As he watches it a sail comes into view under it. It comes nearer and nearer until the whole of a ship can be seen. "The name of the boy who sat looking out to sea was Christopher Columbus. "He loved the sea better than anything else. He longed to live on it and make long voyages. He did not know what it was to be afraid. "As he grew up, he read all he could about the earth. He found that some wise men believed it was not flat, as many supposed, but was round. They also thought it much smaller than it really is. "The young Columbus said to himself: 'If the world is really round, we can reach India by sailing west, instead of making such a long and tiresome journey to the east." "Why did he care so much about getting to India?" asked Lucy. "The people of Europe thought India was the richest land in the world. It had great stores of gold and silver. Beautiful silks and satins, wonderful pearls and emeralds, fragrant spices,—all these things were brought from that glorious land. It is no wonder that Columbus, as well as everyone else, was interested in such a rich country. "There was another reason, however, why Columbus thought so much about India and wished to find a shorter way of reaching it. He loved the Lord with all his heart. He had been told that the people of the East were heathens and that they worshiped idols. "He thought: 'I would like to tell these people of the One God and of Jesus, the Friend of all men.' "I believe he cared more about that than for the silks and spices. "As soon as Columbus was old enough, he went to sea with some of his relations. He learned how to steer a ship and how to manage it in storms. He proved himself brave and daring in sea-fights. He studied the winds and tides. "The time came at last when he spoke to the people of his own town in Italy. He told them he believed he could find India by sailing to the west. They did not listen to him. He himself could not fit up ships to make a long voyage, for he had no money. So he could not try his experiment.