you when you left the
island of Jamaica?

_Tommy._--Yes, I do. One of the blacks held me upon the deck, and then I
looked towards the island, and I thought that it began to move away from
the ship, though in reality it was the ship moving away from the land;
and then, as the ship continued sailing along the water, the island
appeared less and less. First, I lost sight of the trees and houses that
stood on the shore; and then I could only see the highest mountains; and
then I could scarcely see the mountains themselves; and at last the
whole island appeared only like a dark mist above the water; and then
the mist itself disappeared, and I could see nothing but a vast extent
of water all round, and the sky above.

_Mr Barlow._--And must not this be exactly the case if you could rise up
into the air, higher and higher, and look down upon the earth?

_Tommy._--Indeed it must.

_Mr Barlow._--Now, then, you will be able to answer the question I asked
you a little while ago: Could a person travel straight forward from the
earth to the sun, how would they both appear to him as he went forward?

_Tommy._--The earth would appear less and less as he went from it, and
the sun bigger and bigger.

_Mr Barlow._--Why, then, perhaps it would happen at last that the sun
appeared bigger than the earth.

_Tommy._--Indeed it might.

_Mr Barlow._--Then you see that you must no longer talk of the earth's
being large and the sun small, since that may only happen because you
are nearer the one and at a great distance from the other; at least, you
may now be convinced that both the sun and stars must be immensely
bigger than you would at first sight guess them to be.

As they were returning home they happened to pass through a small town
on their way, and saw a crowd of people going into a house, which gave
Mr Barlow the curiosity to inquire the reason. They were told that there
was a wonderful person there who performed a variety of strange and
diverting experiments. On Tommy's expressing a great desire to see these
curious exhibitions, Mr Barlow took them both in, and they all seated
themselves among the audience.

Presently the performer began his exhibitions, which very much diverted
Tommy, and surprised the spectators. At length after a variety of
curious tricks upon the cards, the conjuror desired them to observe a
large basin of water, with the figure of a little swan floating upon the
surface. "Gentlemen," said the man, "I ha