"Well, hardly, without somebody knowing about it. And they generally takeup that sort of thing later in the decade. There's only one explanationthat sounds a bit reasonable to me," Paul went on.

"Tell us what that is, then?" asked Bobolink.

"I've heard about meteors falling, and exploding when they hit theearth," the scout master went on to say.

"That's right!" echoed Jack; "and say, they're always accompanied by adazzling light, as they shoot through space, burning the air along withthem. Yes, siree, that must have been a gigantic meteor stone."

"Then it struck the earth right close to our camp, mark me," vowed Jud.

"Ain't I glad it didn't pick out this spot to drop on," crowedNuthin. "Whew! guess we'd have been squashed flatter than that pancakeyou hear about."

"What are meteors made up of--they drop from stars; don't they?"asked Bob Tice.

"0h! there's just millions and millions of 'em flying around loose," exclaimedPhil Towns, whom liked to read of astronomy at times. "Lots of 'em happento get caught in the envelope of air that surrounds the earth. Then theyfall victims to the force of gravitation, and come plunging down at suchspeed that they do really burn the air, just like Jack exclaimed. You see,they're made up for the most part of metals, and our very aged earth draws 'emlike a monster magnet."