Gordy wants to use stories of heroes and their adventures to
make young americans interested in history. This book contains
stories of Columbus, Thomas Jefferson and many more. ueen were
at that time so much occupied in driving the Moors out of Spain
that Columbus found difficulty in securing a hearing. When at
last he was permitted to unfold his plans to a council of
learned men they ridiculed him, because, forsooth, he said that
the world was round like a globe, and people lived on the
opposite side of the earth. "Such a thing," they declared, "is
absurd, for if people live on the other side of the earth their
heads must be down. Then, too, if it rains there the rain falls
upward; and trees, if they grow there, must grow upside down."
The belief that the world was round was by no means new, as
learned men before Columbus's day had reached the same
conclusion. But only a comparatively small number of people held
such a view of the shape of the earth. Some of the learned men,
however, agreed with Columbus, a