arpet bag and several packages in his hands,
and he was also conducting Rollo's mother in, and thinking about the
horse and carryall. So he told Rollo that he must not speak to him then,
for he could not attend to him.

Rollo then walked along back into the yard, and began to think of the
subject of the sun's shining in at the south door. He looked up towards
the sun, and began to consider what sort of a change in its place, at
noon, on different days, would be necessary in order to account for its
shining in more at south doors and windows, on some days, than on
others. He reflected that if the sun were exactly overhead, at noon, it
could not shine in at any doors at all; for the rays would then strike
perpendicularly down the sides of the houses. While he was standing
thus, lost in thought, looking up to the sun, with his arm across his
forehead, to shelter his eyes a little from the dazzling rays, he
suddenly felt the pressure of two soft hands upon his ears, as of
somebody who had come up behind him. He turned round, and found his
cousin Lucy standing there.

Lucy asked him what he was thinking of, and he told her. He then took
Lucy into the barn, and showed her the chalk mark upon the floor. She
looked on with a good deal of interest, and said she thought it was an
excellent plan; and she wished there was a great barn with a south
floor at _their_ house. Lucy knew more about the subject than Rollo did,
and she gave him some explanations about it. "You see," said she, "that
the sun rises in the east every morning, and comes up higher and higher,
every hour, till noon; and then it begins to go down again, and at last
it sets in the west. But, at some times in the year, it comes up higher
at noon than it does at other times, and so it does not shine so much
into the door."

"It shines _more_, you mean," said Rollo.

"No," said Lucy; "not so much. In the winter the sun moves around by the
south, and keeps pretty low all day, and of course shines farther into
doors and windows."

Then, after a moment's pause, she added,

"If we should mark the place on the floor all the year round, we should
find what time the sun is farthest to the south."

"So we should," said Rollo.

"It would be in the winter," said Lucy.

"Yes," said Rollo; "in the middle of the winter exactly."

"Yes," said Lucy; "and in the middle of the summer it would be nearest
overhead."

"Jonas and I will try it," said Rollo.

"I can try it i