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CHAPTER IV
FLORA CURTIS ASKS A QUESTION
"
O," said Dr. Giles, smiling, "you think that if I succeeded in boring a hole through the earth, and dropped a stone into it, the stone would fall down to the center of the earth and stay there?"
"Why, undoubtedly. The attraction of the earth may be considered as coming from the center, may it not?"
"Certainly it may—at least in the present case."
"Well, then," said Mr. Curtis, triumphantly, "it seems to me that if the attraction comes from the center of the earth, the stone would only be pulled down to the center, and would stop there, because there would be nothing to pull it any farther."
"Your idea is to a certain extent correct," replied the doctor; "after the stone reached the
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