looks as if a short trip in a balloon might take us to his throne in
the sky, yet we know--because the astronomers tell us so--that he is
more than ninety-one millions of miles distant from our earth.

Ninety-one millions of miles! It is not easy even to imagine this
distance; but let us fancy ourselves in an express-train going sixty
miles an hour without making a single stop. At that flying rate we
could travel from the earth to the sun in one hundred and seventy-one
years,--that is, if we had a road to run on and time to spare for the
journey.

Arriving at the palace of the sun, we might then have some idea of his
size. A learned Greek who lived more than two thousand years ago
thought the sun about as large as the Peloponnesus; if he had lived in
our country, he might have said, "About as large as Massachusetts."

As large as their peninsula! The other Greeks laughed at him for
believing that the shining ball was so vast. How astonished they would
have been--yes, and the wise man too--if they had been told that the
brilliant lord of the day was more than a million times as large as the
whole world!




LESSON XXX

IVORY

How many articles are made of ivory! Here is a polished knife-handle,