The tunnel, after this, was a gross and material sensation; but they joined the children in trying to hold and keep it, and Basil let the boy time it by his watch.

"Now," said Tom, when five minutes were gone, "we are under the very centre of the mountain." But the tunnel was like all accomplished facts, all hopes fulfilled, valueless to the soul, and scarcely appreciable to the sense; and the children emerged at North Adams with but a mean opinion of that great feat of engineering.

Basil drew a pretty moral from their experience.

"If you rode upon a comet you would be disappointed.

Take my advice, and never ride upon a comet.
I shouldn't object to your riding on a little meteor,--you would n't expect much of that; but I warn you against comets; they are as bad as tunnels." The children thought this moral was a joke at their expense, and as they were a little sleepy they permitted themselves the luxury of feeling trifled with.