s at defiance, as the train whizzed on
its way with a `piff-paff! pant-pant!' of the great Juggernaut engine,
the carriages rattling and jolting as they were dragged along at the
tail of the mighty steam demon, swaying to and fro with a rhythmical
movement of the wheels, in measured cadence of spondees and dactyls, as
if singing to themselves the song of "the Iron Road."

Strange to say, this was a song of which, Bob noticed, the involuntary
musicians never completed the second bar.

They re-commenced all over again from the beginning, when they reached
some particularly crucial point, where the `click' or the `clack' of the
ever-echoing `click-clacking' chorus proved too much for their
overworked axles!

Bob, though, was not thinking of this music of the rail, or paying any
attention to it, albeit it was distinct and plain to him; as, indeed, it
is to all with ears attuned in harmony with this mystery of motion, and
who choose to listen to it, just as there are `sermons in stones,' for
those who care to read them!

No, all his energies were bent on finding out how it was that the
straight hedgerows and square fields became round, while curving
outlines grow straight in a moment, as if ruled with a measure, at the
instant of their speeding by them; and, it occurred to him, or probably
would have done so if he had given himself time for reflection, that the
question of squaring the circle, which has perplexed the philosophers of
all ages, was not so very difficult of solution after all--looking at
the matter out of the window of a railway-carriage, that is!

Yes, so it really appeared; for, everything seemed `at sixes and
sevens,' the landscape having its middle distances and foreground
irretrievably mixed up and its perspective gone mad, the country through
which they passed resembling in this respect the land of topsy-turvey-
dom!

Bob's surprise, and wonder and delight, at all he saw became presently
too great for him to remain silent any longer or to keep his thoughts to
himself; so, affably forgetting his previous `snub' to his sister when
_she_ had wished to express her feelings, he jerked in his head as
suddenly as he had popped it out the moment before.

"I say, Nell, isn't it jolly?" he exclaimed in eager accents. "Just
look out with me and see how funny everything seems!"

"Why, that was what I wanted to speak of a little while ago, only you
wouldn't listen to me," replied Nellie, more good-humouredly