When play time came the next day, Rollo ran after Nathan to show him his beetle and wedges, and to get him to go out and see him ‘split’ with them. Nathan trotted along after him, very much pleased.
Rollo had his beetle in one hand, and his two wedges in the other, and, as he walked along, he looked over his shoulder towards Nathan, who was following him, and talked to him by the way, explaining to him something about his beetle and wedges.
“You see I am going to split, Thanny. I am going to split some kindling wood for Dorothy. I shall put my wedges into the wood, and then drive them in with my beetle, and that will make the wood split open more and more; and perhaps I will let you split a little, Thanny.”
By this time Rollo had got out to the shed, and he put his beetle and wedges down upon the floor, while he went awayto get some boards to split. There were some old boards behind the barn, which Jonas told him were to be split up to burn, and from these he chose one, which was not very long, and dragged it to the shed. He placed this upon the saw-horse, and then sawed off a piece from one end, about as long as he thought it would be well to have the sticks of kindling wood. After he had sawed off one piece, he was going to split it up, but then he reflected that it would be more systematic and workmanlike to finish his sawing first. So he sawed off another, and another piece, until the board was all sawed up into short pieces. He placed these together neatly in a pile, and then taking one of them, he sat down upon the floor, with Thanny, and prepared to try his beetle and wedges.
“Now,” said Rollo, “I think I must have a knife,—some old knife or other,—to make a little place to drive my wedge in. Thanny, why can’t you go and ask Dorothy to let me have a knife? Come, that’s a good boy.”
So Nathan got up off of the floor, where he had been sitting by Rollo’s side, andwent in for a knife. In a few minutes he came out, and asked Rollo if a broken one would do. He had brought out a broken knife. The handle was whole and strong, but the blade was broken in two, about in the middle.
“Why, yes,” said Rollo, taking the knife and looking at it, “I believe that will do.
“Yes,” he continued, “I shall like this better, for I can keep this all the time, with my wedges. And besides, I believe that I can drive it better.”
So Rollo held the edge of the knife to the end of the board, and then drove it in a little way, with his little beetle. This made a small opening or cleft in the angle or edge of the board at one end. Then he began to drive in his wooden wedge, telling Nathan to look carefully and see when it began to split. Nathan stood near him, stooping down, with his hands upon his knees, and looking on with great attention.
Rollo drove in his wedge, and it proceeded admirably. The wood soon began to crack, and the crack gradually extended almost to the end of the board. When he had driven it in pretty far, he told Nathan to see how hewas going to manage with his second wedge. He was now very glad that he had followed Jonas’s advice, and made the second wedge before trying the first. He inserted the second wedge in the crack, and drove it in. This forced the wood open more, and loosened the first wedge, so that he could easily get it out again, and very soon the board was split entirely in two. Nathan was very much delighted with the whole operation.
In the same manner, Rollo split two or three other pieces off from his board, and then Nathan wanted him to lethimsplit one. Rollo was at first somewhat unwilling to let his little beetle go out of his hand at all, he was so interested in using it; but considering that it would give Nathan a good deal of pleasure, he concluded to let him try it once.
“I will start it for you, Thanny,” said he. And he accordingly made a small cleft by driving in his knife; and then he inserted the wedge, and drove that in too, just far enough to start the crack, and enable the wood to retain the wedge. Nathan then took the beetle, and pounded away.
He found that he could not strike such heavy blows as Rollo could, and yet the wedge gradually penetrated farther and farther, and the crack opened wider and wider, to Nathan’s great delight. Rollo was himself gratified to see how much his little brother was pleased with his beetle and wedges. When the first wedge was driven fully in, he handed him the other, and showed him how to insert that into the crack made by the first wedge, at a little distance from it. Nathan then drove in the second wedge, and this soon finished the work, for it split the piece off entirely, and Nathan took it up, and looked at it, very much pleased at what he had done.
“Now,” said Rollo, “give me the beetle again.”
“No,” said Nathan, “I want to split some more.”
“O, no,” said Rollo, in a tone of good-humored expostulation; “no; it ismybeetle and wedge. I let you have it to split one stick off; but now you ought to let me have it again, immediately.”
“No,” said Nathan, “I want to split some more.”
Rollo took up the two wedges, and would not let Nathan have them, and Nathan held the beetle away behind him so that Rollo should not have that. Thus they seemed to be in inextricable difficulty. Rollo did not know what to do.
“Nathan,” said he, at length, after a pause, “give me my beetle.”
“No,” said Nathan, “Iwant to split.”
“O, dear me!” said Rollo, with a sigh.
At first, he thought that he would take the beetle away from Nathan by force; but he reflected in a moment that this would be wrong, and so finally he concluded to go and state the case to his mother.
So he rose, and began to walk away, saying,
“Well, Nathan, I mean to go and tell mother, that you won’t let me have my beetle.”
Then Nathan, whose conscience secretly reproved him for what he was doing, pulled the beetle round from behind him, and threw it down upon the floor, where Rollo had been sitting. This was wrong. It was a very ill-natured way of giving it up. If he was satisfied that he was wrong, he ought tohave handed it to Rollo pleasantly. Instead of that, he threw it down, with a sullen look, and sat still.
Then Rollo, thinking that it was now no longer necessary to go and trouble his mother with the difficulty, began to return. As he came back, he said, in a kind and soothing tone,
“Now, you are a good boy, Nathan. That is right—to give me back my beetle. Now I will let you split again, some time.”
But Rollo was mistaken in supposing that Nathan was a good boy. Boys are not good until theirheartsare right. When a child has something which he ought not to have, it is not enough for him to throw it down upon the floor, sullenly, because he is afraid to have his father or mother told that he has got it. He ought to give it up pleasantly, and feel that it is right that he should do so. If Nathan had said to himself, “I ought not to keep this beetle, for it is not mine—it is Rollo’s; he made it, and he has been kind enough to lend it to me, and now I ought to be willing to give it back to him pleasantly again;” and then had given it to him with a pleasant countenance,—that would havebeen really being a good boy. But to throw it down in a pet, because he was afraid to have Rollo complain to his mother, was very far from being like a good boy.
However, it was very kind in Rollo to speak soothingly and pleasantly to Nathan; though, if he had reflected how much goodness depends upon the state of the heart, he would not have supposed that Nathan was yet a good boy. In fact, when he saw that Rollo was coming back again, and was not going to his mother, after standing still, looking quite sullen for a moment, he suddenly stooped down, seized Rollo’s knife, and ran off with it out into the yard.
Rollo instantly pursued him, calling out, “Nathan! bring back my knife; Nathan! Nathan! give me my knife.”
Nathan, however, ran on, though Rollo ran the fastest, and was rapidly overtaking him; and just at the instant before he reached him, Nathan’s foot tripped; he fell, and as he threw forward his hands to try to save himself, they came down upon the ground, and his forehead struck the corner of the knife blade. He immediately screamed outwith pain and terror. Dorothy, alarmed by his cries, came out, took him up in her arms, and carried him into the house.
She took him to the table, and began to bathe the wounded forehead in cold water. This was what she always did when the children got cut or scratched, or hurt in any such way. It prevents inflammation. She saw that Nathan was not hurt much, though he continued to cry very loud. His crying was, however, partly from pain, and partly from vexation.
In a few minutes, Rollo’s mother came down stairs to see what was the matter. Rollo thought that his mother might suppose that he had hurt Nathan, and so he began to explain at once how it happened. But his mother held up her hand to him, as a signal for him to be silent. She knew that it was then no time to ascertain the facts.
She came up and looked at Nathan’s forehead a moment, and she saw that it was not much hurt. Besides, she knew, by the sound of Nathan’s cries, that they did not proceed from much pain. She therefore said to him, gently,
“Stop crying, Nathan!”
Now Nathan knew that his mother did not tell him not to cry, except when she was sure that he could control himself if he chose to do so; and he also knew that she punished him if he did not obey. So he began immediately to repress his sobs and cries, and very soon became still. She then put a small plaster, of some sort, upon his forehead, and then carried him up stairs and laid him on the bed.
“There,” said she, “Thanny, lie still there a little while, till your forehead has done aching, and you get pleasant again; then you may get up, and come to me.”
Then she went to her work again, and Rollo came and stood by her side, and told her the whole story.
“Nathan did wrong,” said she; “but it would have been better for you not to have run after him.”
“Why, mother,” said Rollo, “he was running away with my knife; and I can’t split at all without my knife. One thing I know,—I shall not let him split any more with my beetle and wedges.”
“That would be one way to treat him,”said his mother; “but there is another thing you might do, if you chose.”
“What, mother?” asked Rollo.
“Why, make him a beetle and wedge, for his own.”
“Why, mother!” said Rollo, with surprise.
“Yes,” said she. “You might make him one. Think how pleased he would be with it. Then he could sit down with you, and you could both be splitting together.”
“But, seems to me, mother, that that would be rewarding him for being a naughty boy.”
“It would be so, if you were to make him a beetle and wedge,because he was a bad boy; but I proposed that you should make it for another reason, that is, topleasehim.”
“But perhaps he wouldthinkI did it because he ran away with my knife,” said Rollo.
“I don’t think there is any danger that he would imagine that you did it as a reward for that,” replied his mother.
Here Rollo paused a moment. He didnot feel quite ready to undertake to make Nathan a beetle and wedges; but he did not know exactly how to reply to his mother’s reasoning. At length he said, in a timid and hesitating voice,
“But, mother, it seems to me that it would be better to punish Nathan, rather than reward him, or do any thing which would seem like rewarding him for acting so.”
“That may be true,” said his mother. “And it is true, also, that if you should refuse to let him split wood any more with your wedges, it would be punishing him; while, on the other hand, if you should make him a little beetle and wedge of his own, it would be forgiving him. Now I do not say that he ought not to be punished; but which do you think isyourduty towards him,—you, yourself, being only another child, a few years older than he,—to punish or to forgive?”
“Why,—to forgive,—I suppose,” said Rollo, rather doubtfully.
“I am rather inclined to that opinion, myself,” said his mother: “but you can do just as you please.”
Rollo remained some minutes about hismother’s chair, not knowing exactly what to do or say next. He sat down upon the floor, and began to play with some shreds of cloth which were lying there. Presently, he looked up and said,
“Mother, what was the reason why you would not let me tell you what was the matter with Nathan in the kitchen?”
“Because,” said she, “he was crying then, and it is no time to learn how an injury happened, during the excitement of the moment. If you find Nathan crying out in the yard, for instance, and try to get him to tell you how he got hurt, you only make him cry the more. Get him quiet first, and then learn the story afterwards.
“Then, besides the difficulty of his speaking intelligibly,” she continued, “at such a time, boys are very strongly tempted to misrepresent the facts, during the excitement of the first moments. They are very likely to be a little vexed or angry, and, under the influence of those feelings, not to give a correct and honest account. So that it is always best to put off inquiries till the trouble is all over.”
Here Nathan came into the room. His forehead had ceased to give him pain, and so he had clambered down from the bed where his mother had placed him, and now came into the room, looking quiet and calm, though still not very happy.
Rollo went to him, and said, “Come, Nathan, now we will go down stairs to play again.” And he began to lead him down stairs. As they walked along, Rollo said,
“I am going to make you a beetle and wedge for your own, Nathan, and then you and I can split together: only, it is not areward, you must understand. It was wrong for you to keep my beetle, and run away with my knife, and you are sorry you did so, an’t you, Nathan?”
“Yes,” said Nathan.
“And you won’t do so any more, will you, Nathan?”
“No,” said Nathan, “I won’t do so any more.”
Whether Nathan was really sorry for what he had done, or whether he only said so because Rollo was going to make him a beetle, is very doubtful; though it is not impossible that he was a little sorry.
Rollo went down into the shed again with Nathan; and while he was at work making the new beetle and wedge, he let Nathan use his. The first piece of board had been split up; so he laid another one before Nathan, and gave him his beetle and wedges and knife, and then went away out to the barn to get some more wood for wedges, and an auger.
When he came back, he found Nathan standing at the shed door, with the little beetle in his hand, waiting for him. As Nathan saw Rollo coming, he called to him, saying,
“Come, Rollo, come and help me; the board won’t split.”
“What is the matter with it?” said Rollo.
“I don’t know,” said Nathan, “only it won’t split.”
So Rollo went in to see. He found that Nathan had gone to work wrong. Instead of trying to drive the wedge into theendof the board, so as to split italongthe grain, he had made the cleft with the knife in the side of the board, and was attempting todrive it in there, as if he supposed he could split the boardacrossthe grain.
“Why, Nathan,” said Rollo, “that isn’t right. You can’t split it across.”
Then he put the wedge into the end, where it ought to be put, and set Nathan to driving it.Nowit began to split at once; though Nathan could not see why the board should not split one way as well as the other.
Rollo himself did not understand it very well. Nathan asked him why it would not split the other way, and he said that that wasacrossthe grain. But when Nathan asked him what he meant bygrain, he could not tell.
He took up the wood and examined it, and observed little lines and ridges, running along in the direction in which it would split; but at the ends of the board, where it had been sawed across the grain, it was rough. He determined to ask Jonas about it, or his father.
He then went to work, and made the wedges and a little beetle for Nathan. He made Nathan’s beetle smaller than his own,because Nathan was not strong enough to strike hard with such a heavy beetle. He did not get it done in season to use that day; but, the next day, he and Nathan sat down upon the shed floor, and spent an hour in splitting up the boards. They split them all up into good, fine kindling wood. Then they piled the pieces up in a neat pile, and then brought Dorothy out to see them.
Dorothy seemed very much pleased, and promised the boys that, the next time she baked pies, she would kindle the fire in the oven with their kindling wood, and then she would bake them each a little apple turnover.
That evening, just before Rollo went to bed, he asked Jonas if he could tell him why boards would only splitalongthe grain.
“Yes,” said Jonas, “I think I can tell you. But do you know what the grain is?”
“No,” said Rollo, “I don’t know any thing about it.”
“You know that boards are made from the stems of tall trees.”
“Yes,” said Rollo.
“Well, now when trees are growing, there are little channels running up and down from the roots to the branches.”
“What are they for?” said Rollo.
“They are for the sap. The sap flows up and down in them. But then there are no channels across from one side of the tree to the other, because there is no sap to go across. The sap all has to go up from the roots to the branches; and so the channels must all be up and down the tree.
“Now,” continued Jonas, “when they cut down the tree, the trunk will split easily, up and down, the way the channels and fibres all go; but it won’t split easily across. And just so, when they saw it up into boards, the boards will all split lengthwise, from end to end, for this is the way the channels and fibres all lie; but it won’t split across, for that would be across all the fibres, and the wood is made very strong in that direction, and it is well it is so.”
“Why?” said Rollo.
“Because, if trees would split across, as easily as they do up and down, the first goodwind would blow down all the forests in the world.”
“O, Jonas!” exclaimed Rollo, “all the forests in the world?”
“Yes,” replied Jonas, “if the wind blew all over the world.”
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One day, at eleven o’clock, Rollo, after having put away his books carefully into his desk, went out to play. It was a calm and pleasant autumnal day. Brown and yellow leaves were falling from the trees, and lying about the yard. Rollo found Nathan sitting upon the steps of the door which looked toward the garden yard. He felt satisfied and happy, for he had studied his lessons diligently, and, when he saw Nathan, he concluded to have a little play with him.
“Now, Nathan,” said Rollo, “I will lie down upon the steps, and make believe I am a bear gone to sleep, and you come and poke me with your stick, and then I will growl at you.”
“Well,” said Nathan, “I will.”
So Rollo laid down upon the steps, putting his arms upon the threshold of the door for a pillow, and his head upon his arms, and pretended to be asleep; but he did not look much as if he was asleep, after all, for he could not look quite sober. He tried to look sober; but there was a lurking smile upon his face, which made his countenance look quite different from that of a bear. Nathan came creeping along softly, and when he got near enough, he began to poke him with the end of his little whip-handle; then Rollo would start up and begin to growl, when Nathan would scamper away, shouting with laughter, Rollo after him, upon all-fours.
This play lasted several minutes, until at length Nathan spoiled it by punching Rollo too hard with his whip-handle. A great many plays are spoiled by roughness on the part of some who are engaged. Rollo, being hurt a little, got out of patience. He ought to have asked Nathan, pleasantly, not to punch him so hard. Instead of that, however, he declared that he would not play any more, and got up and went away. Nathan followed him, lashing the ground and the leaves with his whip.
They both went into a corner of the yard, where Rollo used to have his sand-garden. This sand-garden was made of clean sand, which Rollo and his cousin James once wheeled up from the brook; and then, after they had smoothed it out, and raked it over, they used to get plants and flowers, without any roots, and stick down, and then call it their garden. They used to water the plants, and so they could keep them green and bright for several days, which was long enough for them; for, after that, they generally preferred putting down fresh ones. But, now, the sand-garden had been for a long time neglected. The remains of some of the old plants were there, withered and dried, and the leaves of autumn were scattered over its surface.
Rollo began to rake off the leaves with his fingers, and then sat down, and went to digging a hole in the sand. It was very dry upon the top, but on digging down a little way, he found it damp, and so it would hold together pretty well, and he could pat it into any shape. A load of clean sand makes a very good place for children to play in, in a corner of a yard.
Rollo sat down on one side of the sand-garden, and Nathan on the other, and bothbusied themselves in digging and building little houses. They both became very much interested, and sat some time very still, until, at length, Rollo looked around to see what Nathan might be doing.
“What are you doing, Thanny?” said he.
“O, I’m making the sand run down through.”
Rollo observed that Nathan had an old tin dipper, which he was holding up in one hand, and putting some dry sand into it with the other. There was a very small hole in the bottom of the dipper, for it was an old one which had been worn out and thrown away; and the sand ran out of this little hole in a fine stream, and it was this which interested Nathan so much.
“O, Nathan,” said Rollo, “let me have the dipper.”
“No,” said Nathan, “I want it myself.”
Rollo would not take it away from Nathan, though he wanted it very much indeed.
“Yes, Nathan,” said he, “let me have the dipper, and I will make you an hour-glass out of it.”
But Nathan said, “No, no,” and moved away a little farther.
Rollo then remembered that such a little boy was generally not interested in any one thing very long, and that, if he should let Nathan alone, he would soon put the dipper down, and then he could have it without any difficulty. So he went on making houses in the sand, and in a few minutes Nathan put the dipper down. Then, soon after, Rollo took it up and put some dry sand into it, and he found that the sand would run very smoothly, in a fine stream, through a small hole there was in the bottom of it.
He determined to make an hour-glass of it. He had seen an hour-glass at his uncle George’s. It was made of glass, big at the bottom and at the top, and narrow in the middle between the two. Through the narrow part in the middle, there was a very small hole, to let the sand run down through; and there was just sand enough put in to run through in an hour. So that, if a person should set the sand to running, he would know when an hour had expired, by observing when the sand had all run through.
Rollo thought that he could make an hour-glass; and he thought it would be a great convenience to him to have an hour-glass inthe yard; because it often happened, when he came out to play, that his mother would tell him that he might stay out an hour; and then he had to go in very often to look at the clock, in order to know exactly when the hour had expired.
There were, however, so many little sticks and old leaves in the sand, that it kept getting continually clogged up, and at last Rollo began to get discouraged. He tried to pick out the little sticks; but he found he could not do that, and at last it occurred to him that probably Dorothy had some sand in the house that was cleaner.
He accordingly went in and asked her. She told him that he must wash his own sand, and that would make it clean.
“But haven’t you got some that is clean already?” said he.
“Yes,” said Dorothy; “but you will like your hour-glass better if you make it all yourself.”
So Dorothy told him how to wash sand, for Rollo said that he did not know. She said he must put a little in a basin, and then pump water into it. “When the basin is nearly full of water, you must stir it round,and then pour off the water, and pump in more;—do this until the water comes off clear.”
So Rollo took the basin which Dorothy gave him, and went out to his sand-garden, and put in a little sand. Then he went to the pump, and pumped water into it. Then he stirred it about with his hand. The water immediately became very turbid, and a great many little sticks and leaves came floating up to the surface. Rollo was surprised to find how rapidly the water separated the light things which would float upon the top, from the heavy sand which would sink to the bottom. He kept pouring off the water, and pumping in more, until at length no more sticks and leaves came off, and the water appeared pretty clear. Then he carried the sand away, and spread it out upon a clean board in the sun to dry.
While he was thus at work preparing the sand for his hour-glass, Jonas happened to come by, and asked Rollo what he was doing. Rollo told him that he was making an hour-glass. Jonas looked on for a few minutes, and then he told Rollo that he thought that was a pretty good plan. “AndIam going to have a time-keeper, too,” said he.
“Are you?” said Rollo. “What?”
“I am going to make a dial,” said he.
“A dial!” said Rollo; “what, a real dial?”
Rollo had an idea that a dial was exceedingly complicated and difficult to make, or to understand; and, in fact, it is difficult to make one that shall be exact in its indications. He did not think it possible that Jonas could make one.
“Yes,” said Jonas, “a real dial; and I have got a noon mark already.”
“A noon mark!” said Rollo; “what is a noon mark?”
“It is a mark to show when it is exactly twelve o’clock.”
“Let me go and see it,” said Rollo, “while my sand is drying.”
Rollo followed Jonas off into the barn, and when there, Jonas pointed to a small line which he had cut with his penknife upon the barn floor. It began at the foot of one of the posts, by the side of the door, and extended back into the barn exactly straight.
“Is that the noon mark?” said Rollo.He was surprised to see that a noon mark was nothing but a cut with a penknife upon a barn floor.
“Yes,” said Jonas; “that is a meridian.”
“A meridian!” said Rollo, looking upon it with an air of great curiosity and respect.
“Yes,” said Jonas; “a line drawn exactly north and south, is called a meridian line; and that is exactly north and south.”
“What do you call it a noon mark for?” said Rollo.
“Because,” said Jonas, “the shadow of the edge of the door post will always be exactly upon it at noon. So that I can always tell now when it is noon, by the shadow of the post upon my noon mark, if the sun shines.”
All this was very new and very curious to Rollo. He had never seen or heard of a noon mark before; and it seemed to him a very simple and beautiful way of knowing when it was noon. He asked Jonas how he found out about it, and Jonas told him that he had been reading about it in a book on astronomy.
“Your father let me have the book,” said he; “and see my chalk marks for the sun’s shadow.”
Rollo looked, and found that Jonas had put down quite a number of chalk marks along in a line, where they had first began to mark the place where the shadow of the door reached into. Rollo and Lucy had forgotten all about their plan of making such a series of observations; but Jonas had gone on regularly, making a mark every Monday, at noon, precisely. As the sun, at that season of the year, was going round farther and farther to the south every week, it shone in farther and farther upon the floor, so that each chalk mark was farther in than the one made the week before.
In order to make his marks at the right time, Jonas wanted to know, every Monday, when it was precisely twelve o’clock, and this led him to make his noon mark, having seen the account of it in the book which Rollo’s father had lent him. He learned there that the shadows of all upright objects are cast exactly north at twelve o’clock, or rather very nearly north; near enough for his purposes. Now, as the post of the barn door was upright, he knew that the shadow of it would be in the north and south line at noon. Of course, if he had a north andsouth line, or a meridian line, as it was called in the book, drawn upon the floor, he knew that he could tell when it was noon, by the shadow of the post coming then exactly upon that line. He explained this all to Rollo, and Rollo was very much pleased with it indeed. He determined to have a noon line somewhere in the house.
Rollo asked Jonas what was the way to draw a noon line. Jonas told him that there were several ways. One way, he said, was to observe some day, by the clock, when it was exactly noon, and then to mark, upon the barn floor, the line where the shadow of the edge of the post fell precisely at that moment. Another way was to get a compass needle, and put it down upon the floor, and then draw a north and south line precisely in the direction that the needle indicated. That would, of course, be a north and south line, because the compass needle always pointed north and south. He said that he adopted both these methods to make his noon line. First, he got a compass needle, which Rollo’s father had lent him, and put that down upon the barn floor just at the foot of the door post, and observedthe direction; and he also noticed when it was twelve, by the clock in the house, and he found that, when it was twelve by the clock, the shadow of the post came exactly to the line indicated by the direction of the compass needle; and so he knew that that was a correct meridian line.
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That evening, Rollo told his father about his hour-glass, and also about Jonas’s noon line. His father said it was very difficult to draw a meridian line.
“O no, father,” said Rollo; “Jonas has drawn one, and he told me how, and it was a very easy way.”
“Yes,” said his father, “it is easy to draw something which you can call a noon mark; but it is a very difficult and delicate operation to do it with any considerable degree of exactness.”
“I think that Jonas’s is exact,” said Rollo.
“It probably may be as exact as he could make it with his means and instruments; but there are a great many sources of error which he could not possibly have avoided.”
“What?” asked Rollo.
“Why, in the first place, the clock is not exact. It is near enough to answer all thepurposes of a family; but it may often be a minute or more out of the way. Then besides, while Jonas is going from the clock out to the barn, the shadow is slowly moving on, all the time; so that he cannot tell exactly where the shadow was, when it was precisely twelve by the clock.
“Then again, it is not always exactly noon when the shadow comes to the north and south line. It varies a little at different seasons of the year, though it is so near that we say, in general terms, that at noon all shadows of upright objects point to the north. Still, it is notpreciselytrue, except on a very few days in the year. Then, again, the post of the barn door is not exactly upright.”
“I thought they always made door posts exactly upright,” said Rollo.
“They do make them as nearly upright as they can, with the common carpenters’ instruments; but they are notexact. To set a post of any kind, with great precision, perpendicular to the horizon, would require very expensive mathematical instruments, and very laborious and nice observations. Then, again, if the clock had been exact, and the post perfectly upright, Jonas couldnot have marked the place of the shadow exactly. The shadow has not an exact and well-defined edge; and then, even while he was marking at one end, the shadow would be moving along at the other end, and so his noon mark would not be exactly straight.”
“Why, father, he could make the mark right along quick.”
“No matter how quick he might make it. It would take some time, wouldn’t it?”
“Only avery little,” said Rollo.
“And do you suppose the sun would stand still, even during that little time, so as to let the shadow remain stationary?
“However,” continued his father, “I don’t say this to disparage Jonas’s noon mark. I dare say, it is accurate enough for his purposes. He only wants to know from it when it is time for him to come in to dinner, or something like that. I only want you to understand what exactness is, and to see, a little, how difficult it is to attain to any considerable degree of it, in such cases. So thus, it seems, that Jonas has got a sort of a dial?”
“Why, it only tells him what o’clock itis at one hour in the day,” said Rollo. “But I think he might make it do for all the afternoon and forenoon.”
“How?” inquired his father.
“Why, all he has got to do is to watch some day when it is nine o’clock, and ten o’clock, and so on, every hour; and then make a line where the shadow comes every hour, just as he did for twelve o’clock. Then he will have marks for every hour in the day, and when the shadow comes along to these marks, one after another, he will know what time it is.”
“O, but the difficulty is,” said his father, “that the shadow will not come to the same places, at the same hours, on different days. It will come to themeridian line, at twelve, always,—that is, nearly to it; but it will not come to any other lines regularly,—that is, if the object, which casts the shadow, is upright.”
“Will any other kind of object carry the shadow regularly?” asked Rollo.
“Yes,” said his father, “an object that leans over to the north, so as to point to the North Star. If you and Jonas could put a post into the ground so as to have it pointto the North Star, then you could mark, all around it, the places to which the shadow would come for every hour in the day, and afterwards it would come to the same places regularly, or nearly so. It would be near enough for your purposes; and I don’t know but that it would be quite a respectable dial for you.”
Rollo then asked his father why it was that a post, which pointed to the North Star, would bring a shadow any more regularly to the hour marks, than an upright one would; but he said that Rollo did not know enough, yet, to understand the explanation, even if he were to try to explain it. “Therefore,” said he, “you must wait until you study astronomy before you can expect to understand it; but you can now, in the mean time, make such a dial, if you wish to do it.”
Rollo did wish to do it very much. He accordingly told Jonas all that his father had said. It seemed very strange to Jonas, that a post, pointing to the North Star, should have its shadows move round any more regularly than a post in any other position. He could not imagine what the North Starcould have to do with the shadows. Still, he determined to try the experiment.
A few days after this, Jonas did try the experiment. He got two narrow boards, which were once pickets belonging to a picket fence, one end of each was sharp, so that it could be driven down into the ground. Then he selected a certain part of the yard, in a corner, where the dial would be out of the way, and yet the path to the barn led along pretty near it. The reason why Jonas got two boards was this: he knew that, if he drove only one stake into the ground, and inclined it towards the North Star, it would be very likely to get started out of its proper position; but if he had two, he could drive the second one down perpendicularly from the end of the first, and then nail the two ends together; and that would keep all steady.
After having got every thing ready, the boys waited till the evening before fixing up the dial, because they could not see the North Star in the day time. But when the evening came, they went out, and began their preparations. It was a clear and pretty cold evening, and the stars were out in thousands.
“Which is the North Star?” asked Rollo.
Jonas looked about a minute or two, saying, “Let me see—where’s the Dipper? O, I see a part of it; the rest is down behind the barn. It was up high the last time I saw it.”
“Where is the Dipper?” said Rollo, looking eagerly in the direction to which Jonas was turned.
“Come this way,” said Jonas, “so as to be out of the way of the barn, and you can see it better.”
So Jonas pointed out the Dipper to Rollo, with its square body, and long, bent handle. It was at first quite difficult for Rollo to see any thing that looked at all like a dipper; as it consisted only of stars, which it required some imagination to make look like one.
“The handle reaches almost down to the ground,” said Rollo.
“Down to the horizon, you mean,” said Jonas.
“Is that the horizon?” said Rollo.
“Yes,” said Jonas, “where the earth and sky meet. Not long ago the Dipper handle was away up there,” he continued, pointing up very high.
“Does the Dipper move?” said Rollo.
“Yes, it goes round and round the North Star, all the time. All the stars that are near the North Star keep going round and round it, once every day.”
“And the rest of the stars,” said Rollo, “do they go round too?”
“Yes,” said Jonas; “only they are so far from the North Star, that they go in larger circles, and so go down below the horizon, and are out of sight sometimes. They come up in the east, like the sun, and go over and down in the west. But they don’t go over straight,” he added. “They don’t come right up straight; and so go directly over. They slant away, off to the south, so as to keep always just so far from the North Star.”
“That’s curious,” said Rollo.
“I think it is,” said Jonas. “And they all go together; they don’t move about among themselves, at all.”
“Don’t they?” said Rollo.
“No,” said Jonas; “only there are a few wandering stars, that keep wandering about among the others. But the rest all keepexactly in their places, and all go round together; so they are calledfixedstars.”
“Show me one of the wandering stars,” said Rollo.
“I don’t know which they are,” said Jonas, “only they are pretty bright ones.”
“I guess that’s one,” said Rollo, pointing to a pretty bright star in the east.
“Perhaps it is,” said Jonas.
“I wish I knew,” said Rollo.
“I’ll tell you how you can find out,” said Jonas.
“How?” asked Rollo.
“Why, when you go into the house, take a piece of paper, and go to the window, and make some dots upon it, for all the stars around that one. Make the dots just in the places that the stars seem to be in. Then let them all go. They will rise more and more, and go overhead, and down in the west, and to-morrow night they will come up in the east again; and then you can look at them again, and see if the bright star has changed its place at all.”
Rollo said that he meant to do that; and then he said that he began to feel cold, andwanted to go in. But Jonas told him that he ought to wait and help finish the dial.
So they went to the place which Jonas had selected, and Jonas, looking up first at the North Star, made a hole in the ground, with an iron bar, in an oblique direction, so that the bar should point pretty nearly to the North Star. Then he drove in one of his stakes in the same way. He then made a hole, perpendicularly, directly under the end of this inclined stake, and drove the other stake down into that. The two upper ends of the stakes were now together.
Then Jonas stooped down, so as to bring his eye near the edge of the inclined stake, at the lower end, so that he could “sight” along the edge of it, towards the star. He had previously cut a notch in it, so that he could get his eye down far enough to look directly along the edge. At the same time, Rollo took hold of the upper end, and stood ready to move it either way, as Jonas might direct, until it should point exactly towards the North Star.
“Down,” said Jonas.
Then Rollo moved it a little down.
“Down more.”
Rollo moved it farther.
“Up—up a little,” added Jonas. “There—that will do. Now hold the two stakes firmly together, exactly so.”
Then Jonas took some nails, which he had before provided, and nailed the tops of the stakes together, Rollo holding the axe up against them, on the opposite side. This supported the end of the inclined stake firmly, so that it could not move up or down. This was all that the boys wanted to do in the evening, and so they both went in.
The next day, Jonas sawed off the ends of both stakes where they projected beyond the junction; and then Rollo said he would watch the clock all day, and mark the place where the shadow came each hour, and drive a little stake down. “Then,” said he, “our dial will be done.”
“But what do you suppose is the reason,” said Rollo, “that we must make it point to the North Star more than to any other?”
“I don’t know,” said Jonas, “unless it is because the North Star is the only one that keeps always in the same place. The rest move round and round every day. Those that are far enough from the North Star to godown below the horizon, rise and set; and those that are not far enough, go round and round in circles, in the open sky. But the North Star keeps still.”
“Does it?” said Rollo, turning around, and looking up to the part of the heavens where he had seen the star the evening before.
“Yes,” said Jonas; “and the reason why we cannot see it now, is the bright daylight. It is up there now, just where it was last night.”
“And the Dipper, too?” said Rollo.
“Yes, and the Dipper, too; only that has moved half round, I suppose, and is now away up above the North Star.”
“I wish I could see it,” said Rollo. And he looked as steadily and intently into the clear blue sky, as he could; but he could not possibly see the least sign of a star.
However, the sun shone bright, and it cast a strong shadow from the stakes which they had driven into the ground. Jonas soon went away to his work, and left Rollo to mark the hours by means of the clock.
So Rollo had to go into the house very often to see what time it was; and at lasthis father, who was sitting there at his writing, asked him what made him want to see the clock so much. Rollo told him the reason. So his father put down his pen, and came out to see the dial.
When he saw the two stakes, with their lower ends driven into the ground, and the upper ends nailed firmly together, he looked at them with a smile, but did not say any thing.
“Will that do?” said Rollo, looking up very eagerly into his father’s face.
His father did not answer, but continued to examine the work on all sides, with a countenance expressive of curiosity and pleasure.
“It points to the North Star, exactly,” added Rollo. “Jonassightedit.”
“Yes,” said his father; “I think that will do; you have got quite a respectablegnomon.”
“Gnomon?” said Rollo.
“Yes,” said his father; “we call such a thing a gnomon. In common dials, they are made of brass; but I don’t see why this won’t do very well. It is rather alargegnomon.”
“Is it?” said Rollo.
“Yes,” said his father, “I think it is the biggest gnomon I ever saw.
“But how are you going to mark the hour lines, Rollo?” asked his father.
“Why, we are going to drive little stakes down into the ground.”
“’Seems to me that you can contrive some better plan than that,” said his father.
“Why?” said Rollo. “Is not that a good plan?”
“Not very good,” he replied; “because you cannot be exact in driving down stakes. The beauty of a dial is its exactness. I should think that you would do better to put a board down upon the ground, and mark your lines upon that.”
“O, the board would get knocked about,” said Rollo.
“I dare say that Jonas would contrive some way to keep it steady.”
“But he says he can’t do any thing more about the dial to-day, for he must attend to his work.”
“Let me see—he is putting the harnesses in order, I believe.”
“Yes, sir,” said Rollo.
“Well, you may tell him that after he has done the harness that he is at work upon now, he may finish his dial.”
Then Rollo’s father went into the house, and away went Rollo in pursuit of Jonas.
Jonas liked the plan of putting a board down very much, and in a short time he went to work to do it. He planed out a board of the right length, and then put it down upon the ground, under and between the two stakes, but nearest to the upright one. They placed it across at right angles to the line between the stakes, and of course, as the stakes were in a north and south line, the board was in an east and west line, and so the shadows were cast exactly across it.
The board being planed smooth, the edge of the shadow could be seen much more distinctly upon it, than upon the ground; so Jonas was satisfied that it would be a great deal better to draw the hour lines upon the board. After having determined upon the place where it was to go, he took it up again, and then drove down two strong but short stakes, sawed off square at the top, into the ground, one on each side; so that they should come under the two ends of theboard. Then he laid the board down again upon the stakes, and nailed the ends of the board to them. The stakes had been driven in until they were just level with the surface of the ground, and so the board seemed to be lying along upon the ground too, though it was, in fact, fastened securely to the short stakes. Then the boys marked the hour lines upon the board with some black paint; and thus they had a very respectable dial. When the sun shone, Rollo could tell what o’clock it was near enough for all his purposes.