"I guess Kilo's the hottest place on earth in summer." "Not the hottest," answered Eliph', leaning forward eagerly.

"You wouldn't say that if you had a copy of Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art, and studied it up the way I do.

Page 442 gives all the hottest places on earth, with the record highest temperature of each, together with all the coldest places, where there is the greatest rainfall, and a chronological table of all the great famines, floods, storms, hot and cold spells the earth has ever known, from the time of Adam to the present day, with pictures of the Johnstown flood, and diagrams of Noah's Ark.

This, with the chapter on the Physical Geography of Land and Sea, telling of tides, typhoons, trade winds, tornadoes, et cetery, explains why and how weather happens.
All this and ten thousand other subjects, all indexed from A to Z in one book----" He paused suddenly, appalled to think that he was already far from his resolve not to mention Jarby's Encyclopedia, and, as his voice still hung on the last word he had spoken, the doorbell rang, and Miss Sally jumped up, happy for any interruption.

She merely turned her head to say: "I guess I don't want one to-day," and then Eliph' heard her open the door, and greet the newcomers as she welcomed them into the hall.