62 STORIES OF EARTH AND SKY 



Mooney, that some people think look like eyes 

 and a nose and a mouth, and so they say there is 

 a man in the moon ? " 



" It makes me weary," replied the Moon, yawn- 

 ing behind a convenient little black cloud, " to 

 think of the senseless gossip that House People 

 will believe and the stories they make out of 

 nothing. I suppose that is why they started that 

 tale about my being made of cheese, and that the 

 man ate me up once a month and then I grew 

 again, and the Red Brothers saying that I grow 

 sick and die each month. Not but what it is the 

 same in Skyland. Mars is always getting in a 

 temper and making remarks when Mercury and 

 Venus get out of sight between the Earth and 

 Sun. And I've seen a few sparks of shooting 

 stars fairly set the entire sky afire with gossip. 

 Those spots and pits on my face are the peaks 

 of mountains, the craters of worn-out volcanoes, 

 and the beds of empty oceans, that is all ; but 

 people had rather believe tricks and fables than 

 easy true things." 



" How is it that you grow large and small, and 

 yet sometimes when you are very little I can see 

 the faint shape of the whole of you ? " 



" Think a moment, Anne. You know that I 

 travel round the earth." 



