Rollo's philosophy Author:Jacob Abbott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. THE PROOF. After tea, on the evening of the day when Rollo and his father had had their ride in the wagon after the trees, little Nathan came i... more »nto the parlor with a hoop in his hand. His mother was sitting at the window, sewing. "Look, mother, look," said he, holding up his hoop. " Ah," said his mother, " a hoop. You've got a hoop." " Yes, mother," said Nathan ; "it is mine — the whole of it. Jonas gave it to me. He got it off a barrel." " Did he ?" said his mother. " Yes; it is a beautiful hoop. You may drive it, mother, if you want to — some time." " May I ? " said his mother; " well, I am very much obliged to you." Nathan perceived that his mother did no take any very great interest in his hoop after all; and so he went out to find Rollo, to show it to him. Rollo and his father were sitting under the piazza, talking about the clouds, and Nathan stopped to listen. The first thing that he heard was Rollo's saying to his father that the clouds were certainly very high up from the ground directly overhead, and that all around at a distance they came down very near to the ground, and so they made a real dome. " No," replied his father; " they are as far from the ground off at a distance as they are here." " O father! " said Rollo. "Why, consider a moment," replied his father. " Do you suppose that, when there is such a canopy of clouds over the sky, if you were to go into the next town, you would find the clouds touch the ground ?" " Why, no, sir," said Rollo. " Don't you suppose that you would find them as high above the earth there, as they are here? " "Yes, sir," said Rollo, "I suppose they must be ; but they look as if they came down to the ground." "No doubt," replied his father. "They ook so, I know. It is an optical illus...« less