taking the base and perpendicular of a right angled triangle, instead
of its hypothenuse."

"Whew, what's all them words I wonder," exclaimed Billy.

"Well, I'll try to show you what I mean," said Sam, taking a stick and
drawing in the sand a figure like this:

[Illustration]

"There," said Sam, "that's a right angled triangle, but you may call
it a thingimajig if you like; it doesn't matter about the name.
Suppose we start at the top to go to the left hand lower corner; don't
you see that it would be further to go straight down to the right hand
lower corner and then across to the left hand lower corner, than to go
straight from the top to the left hand lower corner."

"Certainly," replied Billy, "it's just like going cat a cornered
across a field."

"Well," said Sam, pointing with his finger, "if I were to draw a
triangle here on the map beginning at camp Jackson and running due
south to the line of Pensacola, and then due west to Pensacola itself,
with a third line running 'cat a cornered' as you say, from camp
Jackson straight to Pensacola, the line due south would be about a
hundred and ten miles long and the one due west about fifty miles
long, while the 'cat a cornered' line would be about a hundred and
twenty five miles long."

"How do you find out that last,--the cat a cornered line's length?"