Huge Dog

James, Matthew, and I were walking to pick up Alice and Robert from school the other day. I looked across the street a block ahead and saw a couple people walking an enormous dog. I pointed it out to James and Matthew, but it was a block away, so they weren't that impressed. I continued, "That dog comes up to my hip! He's as tall as Matthew! If that dog walked up to Matthew, he would breathe his stinky hot breath right into his face."

James asks, "How do you know the dog is as tall as Matthew?"

"Oh, well, I see that the dog is as tall as his owner's hips, so that's about how tall he'd be on me, and Matthew is about that tall."

*brief pause*

James asks, "But what if those people are a lot shorter than you?"

"Huh. You're right. I don't actually know how tall those people are." I could have debated my point further, of course, but I was so stinkin' pleased with James' logical curiosity that I let it go. I don't know how he came to ask that question, but somehow he perceived a weakness in my measurement method and could see other possible explanations for what I had experienced. Very, very interesting!