"How have you found it at Melbourne to-day?" "Insufferable!" "How has it been with you, Daisy?" "It has been a nice day, Dr. Sandford." The contrast was so extreme between the mental atmosphere of one speaker and of the other, that Dr. Sandford smiled. It was ninety degrees of Fahrenheit--and the fall of the dew. "I have heard nobody say as much for the day before," he remarked. "But she would be much better at Melbourne." "As soon as I think that, she shall go." The doctor was absolute in his sphere, and Mr. Randolph moreover, she knew, would back him; so Mrs. Randolph held her peace, though displeased. Nay, she entered into a little conversation with the doctor on other subjects, as lively as the day would admit, before she departed. Preston, stayed behind, partly to improve his knowledge of Dr. Sandford. "All has gone well to-day, Daisy?" he asked her pleasantly. "O yes. And Dr. Sandford, shall we finish the sun?" "By all means. What more shall I tell you?" "How much more do you know, sir?" "I know that it is globe-shaped--I know how big it is--I know how heavy it is; and I know that it turns round and round continually." "O sir, do you _know_ all these things?" "Yes." "Please, Dr. Sandford, how can you?" "You would mature into a philosopher, in time, Daisy." "I hope not," muttered Preston. "I know that it is globe-shaped, Daisy, because it turns round and lets me see all sides of it." "Is one side different from another?" "Only so far, as that there are spots here and there," Dr. Sandford went on, looking at the exceeding eagerness in Daisy's eyes. "The spots appear at one edge--pass over to the other edge, and go out of sight. After a certain time I see them come back again where I saw them first." "O I should like to see the spots on the sun!" said Daisy. "You said they were holes in the curtain, sir?" "Yes." "What curtain?" said Preston. "You are not a philosopher," said the doctor. "How long does it take them, the spots, Dr. Sandford, to go round and come back again?" "A little more than twenty-five days." "How very curious!" said Daisy. "I wonder what it turns round for--the sun, I mean?" "You have got too deep there," said the doctor. "I cannot tell you." "But there must be some reason," said Daisy; "or it would stand still." "It is in the nature of the thing, I suppose," said Dr. Sandford; "but we do not fully know its nature yet. Only what I am telling you." "How came people to find these things out?" "By watching--and experimenting--and calculating." "Then how big is the sun, Dr. Sandford?" "How big does it look?" "Not very large--I don't know--I can't think of anything it looks like." "It looks just about as big as the moon does." "Is it just the same size as the moon? But Dr. Sandford, it is a great deal further off, isn't it?" "Four hundred times as far." "Then it must be four hundred times as large, I should think." "It is just about that."