For a moment I was highly
amused, standing by his foot, which swelled up like a hill, and
straining my neck backward to get a look up along the precipice of his
leg, which, curiously enough, I observed was clothed in rough homespun,
the woolly knots of the cloth appearing of tremendous size, while it
bagged at the knee like any terrestrial trousers' leg. His great head
and face I could see far above me, as it were, in the clouds. Yet I was
not at all astonished.
"This is all right," I said to myself. "Of course on Menippe the people
must be as large as this, for the little planet is only a dozen miles
in diameter, and the force of gravity is consequently so small that a
man without loss of activity, or inconvenience, can grow three quarters
of a mile tall."
Suddenly an idea occurred to me. "Just to think what a jump I can make!
Why, only the other day I was figuring it out that a man could easily
jump a thousand feet high from the surface of Menippe, and now here I
actually am on Menippe. I'll jump."
The sensation of that glorious rise skyward was delightful beyond
expression. My legs seemed to have become as powerful as the engines of
a transatlantic liner, and with one spring I rose smoothly and swiftly,
and as straight as an arrow, surmounting the giant's foot, passing his
knee and attaining nearly to the level of his hip. Then I felt that the
momentum of my leap was exhausted, and despite my efforts I slowly
turned head downward, glancing in affright at the ground a quarter of a
mile below me, on which I expected to be dashed to pieces.
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