I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the farthest inch of Asia;bring you the length of Prester John's foot; fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard; do you any embassage to the Pigmies.
Much Ado about Nothing.
The next day, after dinner, Mr. Arnold said to the tutor:
"Well, Mr. Sutherland, how does Harry get on with his geography?"Mr. Arnold, be it understood, had a weakness for geography.
"We have not done anything at that yet, Mr. Arnold.""Not done anything at geography! And the boy getting quite robust now! I am astonished, Mr. Sutherland. Why, when he was a mere child, he could repeat all the counties of England.""Perhaps that may be the reason for the decided distaste he shows for it now, Mr. Arnold. But I will begin to teach him at once, if you desire it.""I do desire it, Mr. Sutherland. A thorough geographical knowledge is essential to the education of a gentleman. Ask me any question you please, Mr. Sutherland, on the map of the world, or any of its divisions."Hugh asked a few questions, which Mr. Arnold answered at once.
"Pooh! pooh!" said he, "this is mere child's play. Let me ask you some, Mr. Sutherland."His very first question posed Hugh, whose knowledge in this science was not by any means minute.
"I fear I am no gentleman," said he, laughing; "but I can at least learn as well as teach. We shall begin to-morrow.""What books have you?"
"Oh! no books, if you please, just yet. If you are satisfied with Harry's progress so far, let me have my own way in this too.""But geography does not seem your strong point.""No; but I may be able to teach it all the better from feeling the difficulties of a learner myself.""Well, you shall have a fair trial."
Next morning Hugh and Harry went out for a walk to the top of a hill in the neighbourhood. When they reached it, Hugh took a small compass from his pocket, and set it on the ground, contemplating it and the horizon alternately.
"What are you doing, Mr. Sutherland?"
"I am trying to find the exact line that would go through my home,"said he.
"Is that funny little thing able to tell you?""Yes; this along with other things. Isn't it curious, Harry, to have in my pocket a little thing with a kind of spirit in it, that understands the spirit that is in the big world, and always points to its North Pole?""Explain it to me."
"It is nearly as much a mystery to me as to you.""Where is the North Pole?"
"Look, the little thing points to it."
"But I will turn it away. Oh! it won't go. It goes back and back, do what I will.""Yes, it will, if you turn it away all day long. Look, Harry, if you were to go straight on in this direction, you would come to a Laplander, harnessing his broad-horned reindeer to his sledge. He's at it now, I daresay. If you were to go in this line exactly, you would go through the smoke and fire of a burning mountain in a land of ice. If you were to go this way, straight on, you would find yourself in the middle of a forest with a lion glaring at your feet, for it is dark night there now, and so hot! And over there, straight on, there is such a lovely sunset. The top of a snowy mountain is all pink with light, though the sun is down--oh! such colours all about, like fairyland! And there, there is a desert of sand, and a camel dying, and all his companions just disappearing on the horizon. And there, there is an awful sea, without a boat to be seen on it, dark and dismal, with huge rocks all about it, and waste borders of sand--so dreadful!""How do you know all this, Mr. Sutherland? You have never walked along those lines, I know, for you couldn't.""Geography has taught me."
"No, Mr. Sutherland!" said Harry, incredulously.
"Well, shall we travel along this line, just across that crown of trees on the hill?""Yes, do let us."
"Then," said Hugh, drawing a telescope from his pocket, "this hill is henceforth Geography Point, and all the world lies round about it. Do you know we are in the very middle of the earth?""Are we, indeed?"
"Yes. Don't you know any point you like to choose on a ball is the middle of it?""Oh! yes--of course."
"Very well. What lies at the bottom of the hill down there?""Arnstead, to be sure."
"And what beyond there?"
"I don't know."
"Look through here."
"Oh! that must be the village we rode to yesterday--I forget the name of it."Hugh told him the name; and then made him look with the telescope all along the receding line to the trees on the opposite hill. Just as he caught them, a voice beside them said:
"What are you about, Harry?"
Hugh felt a glow of pleasure as the voice fell on his ear.
It was Euphra's.