258 ALL ABOARD FOR SUNRISE LANDS.

“Yes; Ralph.”

“Well, I would like a good chance to see the moon through a big
glass.”

“T hope you may have as good a one as I had once.”

‘How did the moon look, uncle?” —

“Tt looked very rough, Ralph,forthere were spots all over it, and
some were bright and some were dark. It was once thought that
the shady spots were water, and names. were given accordingly;
one was called the Sea of Tranquility, for example. But those seas
seem to have all dried up now, or gone somewhere, for astronomers
have come to the conclusion that they are not seas, but great level
tracts, and the bright spots are mountains, because in the sunlight
they cast a shadow as a mountain would. I havea book,” said Uncle
Nat rising, “that gives you a picture of the surface of the moon.
Here it is; I’ve found it. See the mountains, how sharp some of
their tops are, and others are round and seem to be hcellow.”

“Why, uncle, they look like a volcanic country in winter.”

“Well, they are considered to be dead volcanoes. There is one
moon-volcano whose crater is over fifty miles across, and its sides
run up eleven thousand feet. You said ‘a volcanic country in winter,’
and that is what I guess the moon is; a kind of white, wintry icicle.”

“A cold place for the man in the moon,” said Rick.

“But splendid when the sun lights it up,” rejoined Ralph.

“How do you know, Ralph,” asked Rick, “that the sun lights it
up?”

“Guess I know what I’m taught at school, sir,” said Ralph proudly.

‘“‘Here, boys,” asked Uncle Nat, anxious to ward off discussions
about the cold moon, knowing them sometimes to be very hot,
“wouldn't you like to look through a glass big enough to show
you the moon like that?”