8 Tom Seven Years Old.

cause they were a long way off, far up above
the clouds, much higher than the lark could fly.
He had learnt a great many names besides his
own—names of animals and birds and fishes,
trees and flowers, the names of all the letters,
and some of the notes on the piano, and even
the names of the countries which lay far away,
outside the garden, and beyond the road.

Tom wanted to go everywhere, and to see
everything. He was quite astonished when
his papa showed him, on a painted map, what
a very little corner of the big, big world he
lived in. Whenever he asked how soon he
might start, he was told—

“ As soon as you have a ship of your own.”

So he seriously began to pick up pieces of
wood to take them to anybody who would
build him a ship, for time was passing, and
he was growing very old, and would soon
be a man.

Every autumn when the swallows flew
away he longed to go with them; but then
they had wings of their own to take them
over the sea, and did not require ships to sail