Thats another thing weve learned from your Nation, said Mein Herr, map-making. But weve
carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?
About six inches to the mile.
Only six inches! exclaimed
Mein Herr. We very soon got to six yards to
the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile.
And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a
map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!
Have you used it much? I enquired.
It has never been spread out, yet,
said Mein Herr: the farmers objected: they said it would
cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we
now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you
it does nearly as well."