Page:A Voyage in Space (1913).djvu/232

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212
A VOYAGE IN SPACE

miles an hour we should take 175 years to get to the Sun. I suppose a return ticket at the ordinary British rates would cost us something under a million pounds. It is curious to think that the Earth is taking a journey three times as long as that every year without charging us a penny. We go round the Sun in the greatest comfort, Drawing of part of the Sun's surface by Sir W. Huggins. with sleeping compartments at night and restaurant cars during the day, moving so quietly along that we can play our games too. The big Atlantic steamers have broad decks on which children can play some few games; but the Earth has a far broader deck on which we can play every kind of game. We ought to be very grateful indeed for all these comforts and opportunities, and yet we scarcely ever think of them.

But there is something that takes us much