for the life of him, he
could not imagine what it might be. He replied briefly, and then went on
with his preparations for some time in silence, Alma meanwhile looking
on with the greatest interest. The theodolite having been put together,
Mr. Franklin opened another box and took out a wooden tripod, such as
are used to support such instruments. He also took out a fine steel
ribbon, or measuring tape, neatly wound up on a reel.

"You shall carry that, Miss Denny, and I'll shoulder the theodolite."

"Wait till I get my hat and the sun umbrella."

"To be sure; it will be warm in the fields."

Alma was soon arrayed in a dainty chip. At least she called it a chip,
and the historian can do naught but repeat her language. Besides this,
it was not bigger than a chip, and it looked very pretty tied under her
chin. Over her head she carried its real protection, an immense Japanese
paper umbrella, light, airy, and generous.

"Where are you going, Alma?" said Mr. Denny.

"Oh! only to the fields for a little walk. We'll be back presently."

The confidential clerk thought it strange that the daughter of the
house should be so free with the stranger. But the young people were
distant cousins, and it wouldn't have been polite in him to have
objected to the little walk.

So the two, under the friendly shade of the big paper umbrella, went out
to see the new chimney, while Mr. Denny and the confidential clerk staid
behind to talk business.

The new chimney stood at the southeast corner of the great four-story
mill, and close beside the little brick engine house. Alma led the
youthful son of science out of the gate, down the road a few rods, and
then they passed a stile, and took the winding path that straggled over
the pastures to the mill.

Of course they talked volubly. This being the stern and prosy record of
applied science, it becomes us not to report the chatterings of these
two till they reached the base of the vast brick chimney, towering
nearly eighty feet into the air above them. Its long shadow lay like a
stiffened snake upon the fields, and Elmer, observing it, said:

"Good! We can use the shadow, too, and have double proof."

"How?" said the bright one, in a beautiful spirit of inquiry.

"If an upright stick, a foot long, casts a shadow three feet long, the
shadow of another stick beside it, at the same time, is proportionally
long."

"I knew that before. That isn't very high science."

"Why did you say '