“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.”

“But I do not know how large that would be.  I cannot think.”

“Nor can I, Daisy.  But I can help you.  Suppose we, and our earth, were in the centre of the sun; and our moon going round us at the same distance from us that she is now; there would be room enough for the whole concern, as far as distances are concerned.”

“In the sun, Dr. Sandford?”

“In the sun.”

“And the moon as far off as she is now?”

“Yes.”

“But the moon would not be in the sun too?”

“Plenty of room, and to spare.”