THE MOON 55 



quite dark, dark as a pocket, except when the Moon 

 is below the horizon and the stars are clouded. 



It makes a great practical difference to us whether 

 the Moon rises early or late. If she does not appear 

 till we have got home and gone to bed, she might as 

 well never appear at all. Any observant person 

 living in the country will soon find out that two or 

 three days after new Moon, she is to be seen in the 

 evening, being then near to setting ; that the full 

 Moon rises about sunset and shines throughout the 

 night, setting at sunrise ; and that the waning Moon 

 rises later and later every night until she rises in the 

 early morning, setting a little before sunset. We 

 commonly see the Moon at night, wrTenever the sky 

 is clear and the Moon from three to twenty days old. 

 After that we see little of her at night until after the 

 new Moon. But even at times when we do not see 

 the Moon between sunset and midnight, we can often 

 see her in the day-time. In the earlier part of her last 

 quarter, the Moon rises in the morning and sets in 

 the afternoon. The Moon in her first quarter 

 generally rises in the afternoon, and sets early in the 

 evening. At these times we may expect to see the 

 day-Moon, if we look out for her. 



I shall take the liberty of explaining many things 

 which everybody is supposed to know, but I think I 

 need not explain the causes of new and full Moon. 

 Taking so much for granted, I will mention a fact 

 which, as I find by experience, is not known to all 

 intelligent and well-read people. We can tell by 

 looking at the moon whether she is waxing or 



