SUNBEAMS AND THEIR WORK. 2J 
dearest, busiest little sprite amongst us, who wakes a 
smile on all faces wherever she goes, do we not call 
her the " sunbeam of the house " ? 
And yet how little even the wisest among us know 
about the nature and work of these bright messengers 
of the sun as they dart across space ! 
Did you ever wake quite early in the morning, 
when it was pitch-dark and you could see nothing, 
not even your own hand ; and then lie watching as time 
went on till the light came gradually creeping in at 
the window ? If you have done this you will have 
noticed that you can at first only just distinguish' the 
dim outline of the furniture ; then you can tell the dif- 
ference between the white cloth on the table and the 
dark wardrobe beside it ; then by degrees all the 
smaller details, the handles of the drawer, the pattern 
on the wall, and the different colours of all the objects 
in the room become clearer and clearer till at last 
you see all distinctly in broad daylight 
What has been happening here ? and why have the 
things in the room become visible by such slow 
degrees ? We say that the sun is rising, but we know 
very well that it is not the sun which moves, but that 
our earth has been turning slowly round, and bringing 
the little spot on which we live face to face with the 
great fiery ball, so that his beams can fall upon us. 
Take a small globe, and stick a piece of black 
plaster over England, then let a lighted lamp repre- 
sent the sun, and turn the globe slowly, so that the 
spot creeps round from the dark side away from the 
lamp, until it catches, first the rays which pass along 
the side of the globe, then the more direct rays, and 
