You and I, looking on, would know there was no _end_ to the globe: but the spider could not guess this. He would walk on and on, in a straight line, believing himself always to be on a flat surface. And if he contrived to keep a perfectly straight line all round the globe--not an easy thing to do--then, whichever direction he began to go in, the end would be the same: if he kept on long enough he would go round the whole huge ball, and would arrive again at the spot where first he had stood. If he did _not_ manage to keep quite a direct line, but zigzagged a little to right or left, he would not reach the same _spot_; though even then he would get back to the same _side_ of the globe as before. He would find no “end” to it, because a globe, properly speaking, has no “ends.” And this Earth, on which we live, is not flat, like a board or table, but round, like a globe or orange. It is really very like an orange; for an orange is not a perfect globe, but is a little flattened on its sides, or, as we commonly say, “at the ends.” Our Earth also is rather flat in shape at the north and south poles. A round globe, like an orange, or like the Earth, has really no “ends” at all: though we often use the word when speaking of the two poles. If you were to take such a journey, starting from your home, and keeping a perfectly straight line onwards always in one direction, you too would in time come back to the spot from which you started. But a journey of this kind would be very hard to manage: far more so than it sounds. Every little hillock, every little streamlet, every house and every tree, to say nothing of rivers and towns, mountains and oceans, would turn you out of your path. By the time you got round the world, although you would return to the same _side_ of the globe from which you first set out, you might be a long way off from the exact spot. In case you do not know where the two “poles” are, you should ask some one to show you on a school globe. The north pole and the south pole are both very cold parts of our Earth. Ice and snow are there all the year round. Half way between the north and the south poles is the equator--a line drawn exactly round the whole Earth: and all round the Earth, on or near the equator, are the very hottest countries. About half way between the north pole and the equator, and between the south pole and the equator, are the “temperate” parts of the Earth--not so very cold, or so very hot. If a man is travelling from near the north pole towards the equator, or from near the south pole towards the equator, he gets into warmer and warmer places. But if he is travelling from the equator towards the north pole, or from the equator towards the south pole, he gets into colder and colder places.