“Why, young Jim, lad. You’re a funny young soul, you are,’ replied his father, starry eyed. “Yesterday you were asking how long it would take to dig to Australia and now this.”
“But!” waned the lad, “Austlia’s so far away.”
“Not so far away as the moon, son,” answered the father amused.
“How so?” mused the lad, “I can see the moon from my window, but I can’t see Aus’ralia. Not even from the sea,” sighed young Jim Jimminey.
“That’s because the moon’s so vast.”
“Vaster than Austlalia?”
“Vaster than several Australia’s,” replied the father proudly.
“Then how come’s Austlia’s got loads of people while’s there’s only one man in the moon?”
“That’s because the moon’s much farther away.”
“So’s there’s less people the father away they are?”
“Yes.”
“So’s how many people are on Mars?”
“None.”
“None at all?”
“None at all.”
“Won’t the man be lonely?”
“What man?”
“The man in the moon?”
“Well, no.”
“How come?”
“Because he can see all the people on the planet.”
“But we can’t see all the people in Austlalia.”
“No!”
“But he can see them.”
“Yes.”
“But we can’t see them?”
“No.”
“But they can see the moon?”
“Yes.”
“But they can’t see us?”
“No.”
“Well, I don’t understand,” said young Jim confused.
“Well, because they’re below us.”
“And we can’t see below us?”
“No.”
“But we can see above us?”
“Yes.”
“But if Aust’alia’s below us, and the moon is above us, how can Aus’lalia see the moon?”
“Well, because the earth rotates so that we are on the bottom and they’re on the top, and they can see the moon when we can’t.”
“Like in the daytime?”
“Like in the daytime we can’t see the moon, but in our night-time, when they’re having their daytime, we can see the moon and they can’t.”
“But we can never see Austlalia, even when Auslias’s above us?”
“That’s right Jimmy. Now go to sleep,” replied the father, ruffling his hair.
“But you said we can’t see below us, but we can see above us.”
By this time young Jim Jimminey’s father was running out of answers, so he decided to distract young Jim Jimminey with a proposition.
“One day I’ll take you to see Australia.”
“But I want you to take me to the moon.”
“But you’ve seen the moon, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
“But you haven’t seen Australia.”
“No.”
“Well then, I’ll take you to see Australia.”
And with that young Jim Jimminey’s father headed for the bedroom door, and on opening it wished him goodnight and spurred him to get some sleep. And just as he was about to leave the door slightly ajar, he heard young Jim Jimminey ask,
“How come you can’t take me to the moon when we can see it, but you can’t take me to Austlalia when we can’t see it?