The Brick Moon, and Other StoriesHale, Edward Everett
Science
The Brick Moon, and Other Stories
Hale, Edward Everett
Short stories; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
Mrs. Brannan was the spokesman. "We tried a good
many experiments about day and night. It was very funny
at first not to know when it would be light and when
dark, for really the names day and night do not express
a great deal for us. Of course the pendulum clocks all
went wrong till the men got them overhauled, and I think
watches and clocks both will soon go out of fashion. But
we have settled down on much the old hours, getting up,
without reference to daylight, by our great gong, at your
eight o'clock. But when the eclipse season comes, we
vary from that for signalling.
"We still make separate families, and Alice's is the
seventh. We tried hotel life and we liked it, for there
has never been the first quarrel here. You can't quarrel
here, where you are never sick, never tired, and need not
be ever hungry. But we were satisfied that it was nicer
for the children and for all round to live separately and
come together at parties, to church, at signal time, and
so on. We had something to say then, something to teach,
and something to learn.
"Since the carices developed so nicely into flax, we
have had one great comfort, which we had lost before, in
being able to make and use paper. We have had great fun,
and we think the children have made great improvement in
writing novels for the Union. The Union is the old Union
for Christian work that we had in dear old No. 9. We
have two serial novels going on, one called `Diana of
Carrotook,' and the other called `Ups and Downs'; the
first by Levi Ross, and the other by my Blanche. They
are really very good, and I wish we could send them to
you. But they would not be worth despatching.
"We get up at eight; dress, and fix up at home; a
sniff of air, as people choose; breakfast; and then we
meet for prayers outside. Where we meet depends on the
temperature; for we can choose any temperature we want,
from boiling water down, which is convenient. After
prayers an hour's talk, lounging, walking, and so on; no
flirting, but a favorite time with the young folks.
"Then comes work. Three hours' head-work is the
maximum in that line. Of women's work, as in all worlds,
there are twenty-four in one of your days, but for my
part I like it. Farmers and carpenters have their own
laws, as the light serves and the seasons. Dinner is
seven hours after breakfast began; always an hour long,
as breakfast was. Then every human being sleeps for an
hour. Big gong again, and we ride, walk, swim,
telegraph, or what not, as the case may be. We have
no horses yet, but the Shanghaes are coming up into very
good dodos and ostriches, quite big enough for a trot for
the children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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