The Road to China

I learned today the world is round

Like my big rubber ball,

With China on the other side,

Down there below us all.

And so I went and dug a hole—

I started in at eight—

And dug and dug and dug and dug,

Beside the garden gate.

And Oh, I thought what fun 'twill be

To get a ladder tall,

And climb right down to China through

The hole behind the wall!

What fun to walk through little streets

All lit with lanterns queer!

Each man will have a pig-tail, and

How strange the talk I'll hear!

To think the road to China lies

Just by the garden wall!

Then Daddy came and said "Ho! Ho!

That's not the way at all!

"To get to China, you must sail

For days across the sea!"—

Why there's no short cut through the earth

Seems very queer to me!

And still I sit beside my hole

And dream and dream away,

Of that strange far-off country where

They've night-time in our day!