‘88 LUCY AMONG THE MOUNTAINS.

answer for you to shut your eyes. You can
it.”

The children all tried the plan. They shut
their eyes, and held their hands over them, and so
kept them as dark as they could for some minutes,
and then looked in. They thought that they
could see better. Robert said that what Eben
saw was only a root, and that he did not believe
that there was any squirrel there.

The children, therefore, presently came back,
and took their seats upon the log again; and Lu-
cy asked her mother to go on.

“think it likely that what I have explained
to you may be the reason why a fire or a light
does not appear so bright by day as it does by
night. The eye is accustomed to the glare, and
adapts itself to a strong light, and so becomes in
some measure insensible to a comparatively faint
one.

“ That is the reason, I suppose,” she continued,
“why we can’t see the stars in the daytime.”

“ Yes, mother,” said Lucy; “I knew there
were stars in the daytime. Miss Anne told me.”

“7 saw a star one morning,” said Robert.

“ After it was light?” asked Lucy.

** Yes,” replied Robert; “the sun was almor
up.”