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EGYPT, INDIA, ITALY, SPAIN, GREECE, ETC.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
No work on Geography could be called complete without a description of these six (counting, etc.) countries.
If the Reader should ask me how I came to leave six such important countries to the last page, I should be compelled to change the subject.
Writing a little Geography Book is like packing a very small bag for a journey round the world, only instead of cramming it with s.h.i.+rts and shoes and collars and handkerchiefs and brushes, you stuff it full of countries, and when you try to close it (as with the bag) you always find that you have left out at least several of the most important things.
No amount of squeezing (or sitting on the lid) will make room for six such big countries in a little book that is already as full as it can be.
The only thing to do is to take out all the countries and lay them in a row and see which you can get along best without; you can't possibly spare any of the large countries; the question is how many of the little countries together would----*
* You are digressing again, worse than ever! This thing has got to stop!
_The Reader._
Oh, very well! If that's the way the Reader feels about it it shall stop right here.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE END]
EPILOGUE
_If this little world to-night_ _Suddenly should fall thro' s.p.a.ce_ _In a hissing, headlong flight_ _Shrivelling from off its face,_ _As it falls into the sun,_ _In an instant every trace_ _Of the little crawling things--_ _Ants, philosophers, and lice,_ _Cattle, c.o.c.kroaches, and kings,_ _Beggars, millionaires, and mice,_ _Men and maggots all as one_ _As it falls into the sun--_ _Who can say but at the same_ _Instant from some planet far_ _A child may watch us and exclaim:_ _"See the pretty shooting star!"_
