was amused but quite comprehending, as if he was not at all
surprised that they should doubt him.

"See," he went on, taking an orange from the basket that stood by,
"suppose this little depression where the stem lost its hold to be
Jerusalem, the center of our world; then this is Portugal--" he traced
with the point of a penknife the outline of the great western peninsula.
"Here you see are the capes--Saint Vincent, Finisterre, the great rock
the Arabs call Geber-al-Tarif--the Mediterranean--the northern coast of
Africa--so. Beyond are Arabia and India, and the Spice Islands which we
do not know all about--then Cathay, where Marco Polo visited the Great
Khan--you have heard of that? Yes? On the eastern and southern shore of
Cathay is a great sea in which are many islands--Cipangu here, and to
the south Java Major and Java Minor. We are told in the Book of Esdras
that six parts of the earth are land and one part water, so here we cut
away the skin where there is any sea,--"

The miniature globe took form, like fairy mapmaking, under the
cosmographer's skilful fingers, and the children watched, fascinated.

[Illustration: "THE MINIATURE GLOBE TOOK FORM AS THE CHILDREN WATCHED,
FASCINATED."--_Page_ 44]

"But," cried Beatriz wonderingly, "a ship could sail around the world!"

Colombo nodded and smiled. "So it was written in the 'Travels of Sir
John Maundeville' more than a hundred years ago. But no ship has done
so."

"Why not?" asked Fernao.

"Chiefly, perhaps, because of tales like that of the Sea of Darkness and
Satan's hand. And it is true that a ship venturing very far westward is
drawn out of its course, as if the earth were not a perfect round, but
sloped upward to the south. My own belief is,"--he seemed for a moment
to forget that he was talking to children, "that it is not perfectly
round, but somewhat like this pear,--" he selected a short chubby pear
from the basket, "and that on this mountain may be a cool and lovely
region which was once Paradise."

"Oh!" cried Beatriz, her face alight with the glory of the thought. The
geographer smiled at her and went on.

"Also you see that the ocean is on this side of the earth very much
greater than the Mediterranean. We do not know how long it would take to
cross it. I have lately received a map from the famous Florentine
Toscanelli which--ah!" he interrupted himself, "here comes our good
friend Master Serrao."

It had taken the pilot longer than he expected