Page:Green Mansions 1904.djvu/160

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
152
GREEN MANSIONS

top of Ytaioa representing the world. Consider, then, how small a portion of the world we can see from this spot!"

"And do you know it all?" she returned excitedly. "All the world?" waving her hand to indicate the little stone plain. "All the mountains, and rivers, and forests,—all the people in the world?"

"That would be impossible, Rima; consider how large it is."

"That does not matter. Come, let us go together—we two and grandfather, and see all the world; all the mountains and forests, and know all the people."

"You do not know what you are saying, Rima. You might as well say, 'Come, let us go to the sun and find out everything in it.'"

"It is you who do not know what you are saying," she retorted, with brightening eyes which for a moment glanced full into mine. "We have no wings like birds to fly to the sun. Am I not able to walk on the earth, and run? Can I not swim? Can I not climb every mountain?"

"No, you cannot. You imagine that all the earth is like this little portion you see. But it is not all the same. There are great rivers which you cannot cross by swimming; mountains you cannot climb; forests you cannot penetrate—dark, and inhabited by dangerous beasts, and so vast that all this space your eyes look on is a mere speck of earth in comparison."

She listened excitedly. "Oh, do you know all that?" she cried, with a strangely brightening look; and then