Measuring the Earth With a Stick and a Well
Measuring the Earth With a Stick and a Well — an invention story. 10 illustrated pages, narrated, on the kids shelf, free to read on Wonder Inventions.
Page 1
The gangplank groaned as sailors hauled a wooden crate waist-high with rope handles, and the knot at its corner gave way. The crate tipped, slamming onto the wet stone quay, and dozens of scrolls burst out, rolling every which way across the slick ground. Tiya's eyes went wide and she dropped the writing board bouncing on its cord against her chest, bolting after one scroll spinning toward the harbour's edge where dark water lapped at the stones. Her bare feet slapped the wet quay, dodging a startled fisherman's basket, as the scroll teetered on the last slab before the drop. She flung herself flat, skidding on her belly, and clamped both hands around it just as it tipped over the lip. Behind her, the tall old man came striding fast, his sandals slapping, sticks rattling in the bundle on his back, shouting for her to mind the edge. He reached down and hauled her up by the arm, scroll clutched safe against her ink-smudged cheek, both of them breathing hard and grinning with relief.
Page 2
The tall man knelt in the sand of the courtyard, planting a straight stick upright with both hands until it stood firm as a mast. Tiya dropped to her knees beside him, dragging a stub of chalk round the long shadow it threw, her braids clicking as she worked. "Keep it still, don't breathe on it," she warned, shielding the line with her palm. Pepi, freshly loaded with bulging panniers that swayed as he shifted his hooves, ambled backward across the courtyard, nosing at a fig tree. Nobody noticed him drifting toward the tall bronze water-clock standing waist-high against the wall. His broad grey rump bumped the stand, tipping it, and a sheet of water sloshed out across the sand, washing straight over the careful chalk circle. Tiya shrieked and scrambled after the spreading puddle, slapping both hands down too late. The tall man lunged, grabbing Pepi's halter rope and hauling him away from the toppling clock before it fell further, steadying the heavy bronze bowl with his shoulder just in time.
Page 3
At the top of the spiral ramp, higher than ten houses stacked one on another, the broad young man with the shaved head was waiting by the great mirror platform, his huge coil of knotted rope slung heavy across his chest. He stepped forward to greet them, grinning — and the coil slipped loose from his shoulder. The pale rope unrolled like a snake, bounding and bouncing down the long spiral ramp, knot after knot slapping stone. "Grab it, grab it!" he shouted, already running after it, sandals slapping the worn ramp floor. Tiya dropped her writing board and scrambled down a few steps to block the rope's path, but it slithered past her fingers. Khaemwaset finally stamped one thick sandal down hard on a loop near the bottom, trapping it flat against the stone, and hauled the whole length back up hand over hand, arm muscles bunching, while Pepi stood firm above, bell jingling, letting the rope pile safely across his own striped blanket as it came.
Page 4
The plank ran from the sandy quay up to the reed barge's deck, no wider than two hands and bouncing like a live thing with every step. Pepi set one hoof on it, felt it bend beneath him, and froze solid halfway across, ears flat, bell silent. Jars of water wobbled on his panniers. Behind him, sailors waited with scrolls raised overhead, unable to pass. "He thinks it's a crocodile's back," Tiya called, gripping the rope rail and leaning out. Khaemwaset set down his rope coil, waded onto the bouncing plank himself, and wrapped both broad arms right round the donkey's middle, hauling him up off his feet. Pepi's legs kicked once, the bell clanging wildly, and then Khaemwaset staggered the last three steps and dropped him safely onto the barge deck with a thump. Jars were passed hand to hand over the gap. Eratosthenes steadied the swaying plank with his long stick, while Tiya scrambled aboard clutching the scroll bag tight to her chest, laughing with relief.
Page 5
The barge gave a grinding shudder and stopped dead, tipped sideways against a sandbar hidden under the green water. Scrolls slid across the deck and a water jar toppled with a thud. "We're stuck fast!" shouted Khaemwaset, already vaulting over the side into the marsh, splashing down to his knees. Eratosthenes hitched up his saffron robe and climbed down after him, grunting as the mud sucked at his sandals. Tiya dropped her writing board onto a dry basket and jumped in too, small as she was, pressing both palms flat against the hull and shoving with all her weight. Pepi brayed and stamped, nearly tipping the panniers, until Khaemwaset grabbed his lead rope and hauled him steady. Together they heaved, boots and hooves churning the green water, until the barge lurched free with a sucking groan. In that same instant a long-legged white ibis swooped low over the deck, snatched a wooden measuring peg in its beak, and flapped off over the reeds before anyone could even reach for it.
Page 6
The broad young man planted one thick sandal in front of the other, counting aloud in a booming chant that rolled up the sand slope toward the great stepped stone mountain of the pyramid, taller than a hundred men stacked head to foot. His copper bracelets clinked with every stride as he hauled the knotted rope taut behind him. Tiya trotted alongside, scratching tally marks fast on her palm-leaf board, when a spinning dust devil roared up out of nowhere, snatching the board's loose page clean off its cord. The page cartwheeled up the dune, flapping like a trapped bird. Tiya dropped to hands and knees, scrambling up the loose slope, sand spraying from her bare feet, fingers grabbing at air as the page skittered just out of reach. She finally slammed a flat stone down on top of it before it could escape again, panting into the sand. Pepi brayed and stamped, bell jangling, while the tall silver-bearded man shaded his lenses and called encouragement from below, unwilling to climb the shifting slope himself.
Page 7
A stone-hauling sledge groaned past on the quarry road, dragged by ropes thick as a man's arm, and Khaemwaset's knotted measuring rope snagged beneath its runners. He hauled back hard, bracing his sandals against the sand, but the rope snapped with a crack like a whip, both halves flying loose. The bead-tally clattered down and scattered across the stones. Tiya dropped to her knees scrambling after the rolling beads before they tumbled down the slope. Pepi shied sideways, ears flattening, and Eratosthenes caught his halter before the panniers could tip. They dragged themselves into the hot shade of a half-cut granite block, taller than a man, to think. Khaemwaset unwound his scarlet sash from his waist, and Eratosthenes unpinned his faded purple one, and together they knotted the cloth into the broken gap, pulling each knot tight with both hands while Tiya held the strands taut between her fingers so they wouldn't slip loose again before the mend was finished.
Page 8
The mended rope, thick as a wrist with its knotted sash-patch, went down first, paid out hand over hand into the dark stairwell. Ninety steps dropped away below them, slick with river damp and green moss, each one carved with faint flood-lines from years long past. Khaemwaset braced his broad sandals on the top step, letting the coil run slow through his copper-bangled arm. 'Careful on the moss,' he grunted, 'it drops you faster than you'd like.' Eratosthenes went first, long legs testing each slippery stone before trusting his weight. Tiya scrambled down behind, bare feet gripping better than anyone's sandals, her writing board bouncing on its cord. Pepi waited at the top, refusing the stairs entirely, ears flat with donkey stubbornness. Near the bottom, the bucket on its rope slid off its hook and bounced down, splashing into the river and bobbing away fast on the current. Tiya lunged with a long reed pole, leaning out over the water, and hooked the handle just before it slipped round a rock. 'Got it!' she shouted, hauling it dripping back to the steps.
Page 9
They flung themselves flat on the warm coping stones, bellies pressed to the stone rim, and peered down into the throat of the well, a shaft as deep as ten men standing head to foot. The tall man lowered the polished bronze mirror on its cord, hand over hand, letting it sink past the cool shadowed walls until it hung just above the black water far below. Tiya gripped his sash to steady him, leaning out dangerously far until Khaemwaset grabbed the back of her tunic and hauled her safely in. Down at the water, the sun dropped a perfect round coin of light, trembling on the surface. Khaemwaset planted a straight stick upright in the dust beside the well and they all stared — no shadow fell from it at all, not even a sliver. Pepi stamped and shook his bell, as if he too understood the stillness of noon. Tiya scratched the moment onto her board with quick, excited strokes of her reed pen, ink smudging fresh across her cheek.
Page 10
On the swept granite floor of the quarry, wide as a courtyard and still warm from the sun, the tall librarian knelt with his knobbly knees pressed flat and dragged a pointed stick through the dust, scratching a huge circle as big as a house. Tiya ran alongside, patting down loose grit so the line stayed crisp. Khaemwaset uncoiled his mended rope and stretched it corner to corner, calling numbers while he hauled the knots taut. Then they led Pepi to the rim, the donkey's hooves clopping obediently round the whole circle, pressing one neat print after another into the stone dust until the ring was stitched shut with hoofmarks. Tiya scrambled for her chalk and knelt again, scrawling huge wobbly numbers beside the circle while Khaemwaset held her board steady so her hand wouldn't shake. Below, the rapids of the cataract roared white over the rocks, and the granite boulders of the unfinished obelisk site threw long shadows as the sum was finished: two hundred fifty-two thousand stadia, the whole round Earth measured at last.
About this story
- Audience: kids (ages 6–12)
- Format: 10 illustrated pages, narrated, on the kids shelf, free to read on Wonder Inventions
Read Wonder Inventions on your phone
Wonder Inventions is available on Android. Get Wonder Inventions on Google Play.