_Kate_ (_interrupting_). "To be sure papa, it _is_ something strange; but then Captain Pratt and Captain Smitherton didn't go altogether the same route, and that makes a difference you know." _Uncle._ "I don't know any such thing, you hussy! How should I? I think it only makes the matter more remarkable. Doctor Dubble L. Dee--" _Kate._ "Why, papa, Captain Pratt went round Cape Horn, and Captain Smitherton doubled the Cape of Good Hope." _Uncle._ "Precisely! the one went east and the other went west, you jade, and they have both gone quite round the world. By the bye, Doctor Dub--" _Myself_ (_hurriedly_). "Captain Pratt, you must come and spend the evening with us to-morrow--you and Smitherton--you can tell us all about your voyage, and we'll have a game of whist, and--" _Pratt._ "Whist, my dear fellow--you forget. To-morrow will be Sunday. Some other evening--" _Kate._ "Oh, no, fie!--Robert's not _quite_ so bad as that. _To-day's_ Sunday." _Uncle._ "To be sure--to be sure." _Pratt._ "I beg both your pardons--but I can't be so much mistaken. I know to-morrow's Sunday, because--" _Smitherton_ (_much surprised_). "What _are_ you all thinking about? Wasn't _yesterday_ Sunday, I should like to know?" _All._ "Yesterday, indeed! you _are_ out!" _Uncle._ "To-day's Sunday, I say--don't I know?" _Pratt._ "Oh, no!--to-morrow's Sunday." _Smitherton._ "You are _all_ mad--every one of you. I am as positive that yesterday was Sunday as I am that I sit upon this chair." _Kate_ (_jumping up eagerly_). "I see it--I see it all. Papa, this is a judgment upon you, about--about you know what. Let me alone, and I'll explain it all in a minute. It's a very simple thing, indeed. Captain Smitherton says that yesterday was Sunday: so it was; he is right. Cousin Bobby, and papa and I, say that to-day is Sunday: so it is, we are right. Captain Pratt maintains that to-morrow will be Sunday: so it will, he is right, too. The fact is, we are all right, and thus _three Sundays have come together in a week_." _Smitherton_ (_after a pause_). "By the bye, Pratt, Kate has us completely. What fools we two are! Mr. Rumgudgeon, the matter stands thus: the earth, you know, is twenty-four thousand miles in circumference. Now this globe turns upon its own axis--revolves--spins around--these twenty-four thousand miles of extent, going from west to east, in precisely twenty-four hours. Do you understand, Mr. Rumgudgeon?" _Uncle._ "To be sure--to be sure. Doctor Dub--"