Now, why could n't we do the same ?" he asked himself, with a sharp turn of the voice.

"If that stone is on its way to Chiny, why can't we folly on after it?
If we can't reach the crust of the world at this point, what's to hinder our going round by Chiny ?--that's what I'd like to know.
I wonder how long it would take us?
I s'pose we'd get up pretty good steam, and go faster and faster, so that we wouldn't be many days on the road.
"But there's one great objection," he added, scratching his head and knitting his brow with thought.

"There's nothing to stop us from bouncing from side to side like that stone.

If the way is rough, we'd be pretty sartin to get our breeches pretty well ripped off us, and by the time we raiched Chiny, we wouldn't be in a condition to be presented in coort; and then, too, I haven't enough money about me to pay my way home again." The visionary scheme was one of those which grew less in favor the more he reflected upon it, and, after turning it over for some minutes longer, he was naturally compelled to abandon the idea.
"I must try the stream agin," he said, as he rose to his feet and groped his way back.

"That seems to be the best door, after all, though it ain't the kind I hanker after." He thrust one end of the torch in the ground some distance away, and walked to the bank close to the great rock beneath which the stream dove and disappeared.