At one time the little girl remarked:
"I wonder when we'll reach the bottom of this
hole. And isn't it funny, Shaggy Man, that what is
the bottom to us now, was the top when we fell the
other way?"
"What puzzles me," said Files, "is that we are
able to fall both ways."
"That," announced Tik-Tok, "is be-cause the world
is round."
"Exactly," responded Shaggy. "The machinery in
your head is in fine working order, Tik-Tok. You
know, Betsy, that there is such a thing as the
Attraction of Gravitation, which draws everything
toward the center of the earth. That is why we
fall out of bed, and why everything clings to the
surface of the earth."
"Then why doesn't everyone go on down to
the center of the earth?" inquired the little girl.
"I was afraid you were going to ask me that,"
replied Shaggy in a sad tone. "The reason, my
dear, is that the earth is so solid that other solid
things can't get through it. But when there's a
hole, as there is in this case, we drop right down
to the center of the world."
"Why don't we stop there?" asked Betsy.
"Because we go so fast that we acquire speed
enough to carry us right up to the other end."
"I don't understand that, and it makes my
head ache to try to figure it out," she said after
some thought. "One thing draws us to the center
and another thing pushes us away from it.
But--"
"Don't ask me why, please," interrupted the
Shaggy Man. "If you can't understand it, let it go
at that."
"Do you understand it?" she inquired.
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