WAFFLES AND A WALK 23 



" I mean that night comes nowadays very soon after 

 we come home from school. Why are the days so short 

 m winter, Uncle Roy, just when we need the sun to 

 warm us, and so long and hot in summer when we 

 want to be cool ? " 



" Why, it's the other way round," said Rap ; " it is 

 because the sun stays up so long in spring and sum- 

 mer that the days are warm, and because it comes so 

 late, and hurries to bed, that the days are cold." 



" But why does the sun stay longer some times than 

 others ? Why need the days ever be so very short ? " 



".Your supper would grow cold if I stopped to 

 explain," said the Doctor. " Some day we must make 

 ourselves into a class in astronomy and learn how 

 the sun, moon, and stars all go bowling about in 

 the sky, and how the old earth looked when she was 

 young." 



" There is the moon now. Oh, how fat it is to- 

 night," said Dodo, looking toward a window where the 

 curtains had not been drawii. 



" The hunter's moon," said Mr. Blake, " and many a 

 good time I've had by the light of it." 



"Why is it called hunter's moon, daddy," asked 

 Dodo, " and what did you do with the light of it ? " 



" It is the moon that comes in October when all the 

 game birds and wild food and fur beasts are through 

 raising their families, and it is fair for House People 

 who need fur or food to go and hunt them." 



" Did you ever need food and fur, daddy ? " per- 

 sisted Dodo. 



" Yes, sometimes I really did ; and should have 

 starved except for my gun and what it brought me ; 



