2　The World Is Round, for I’ve Been Round It

Did you ever run away from home?

I did—once upon a time—when I was younger than you are.

I wanted to see the World.

My mother had told me the World was a huge ball and that if I kept on, straight ahead, following my nose, I would go round the ball and come back to where I started.

So early one morning, without telling anyone, I set out to go around the World.

But I didn't get very far before night came on, and a big kind policeman brought me back home.

When I was grown up and had no home, I started out once again to go around the World. This time I got on a train headed toward the setting sun.Night came on, but no big, kind policeman brought me back home；so I kept on and on, day after day, week after week, month after month—sometimes on trains, sometimes on boats, sometimes in automobiles, sometimes on the backs of animals—but always toward the side of the World where the sun sets, the side which the people call“the west.”

I passed broad fields and thick forests, small towns and big cities—I went over bridges, round hills, and through holes in mountains—I reached a great ocean and sailed across it