A YOUNG NATURALIST. 143 



no less than fifty hundredweights. To-morrow morning we will 

 search for the one we have seen, which must have dropped at the 

 end of the valley." 



" Are these stones luminous 1 " rejoined the Indian. 



" No ; but they take fire owing to their rapid flight." 



" And whence did the meteor come which passed so close to 

 us?" 



" Either from the moon or the stars, or perhaps from the sun." 



L'Encuerado half closed his eyes, and burst out laughing, at 

 what he considered a joke. He laughed, indeed, so heartily, that 

 we could not help joining him. 



" Now, what do you imagine the sun and moon really are ? " 

 asked Lucien. 



" God's lanterns," replied the Indian, gravely. 



Our young companion was well accustomed to the artless 

 ignorance of his friend, but still he always endeavoured to con- 

 tend against it; so he set to work to teach him something 

 about our planetary system. The dimensions which he attri- 

 buted to the heavenly bodies seemed to afford great amuse- 

 ment to the Indian. At last, just when the young orator 

 fancied he had convinced his disciple, the latter embraced him, 

 exclaiming — 



" What an amusing tale ! Oh ! how pleased I should be to be 

 able to read such pretty stories as that in a book." 



" Tales, indeed ! " cried Lucien, quite indignant. 



" Well, the very idea of saying that the earth is a ball, 

 which moves round and round, and that there are stars 

 which are bigger ! Many a night have I spent looking at the 

 stars, and I know they are nothing but lanterns, and that's 

 enough ! " 



" But if you have observed them so carefully," interposed 

 Sumichrast, " you must have observed that they are constantly 

 shifting their places." 



" Yes, but that is because the angels don't always light up the 

 same stars, and God has plenty of them in every direction " 



I now interrupted the conversation. 



" Come, let us all go to rest ! " I cried, cutting short a discus- 



