Project Gutenberg's Harper's Young People, February 10, 1880, by Various

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Title: Harper's Young People, February 10, 1880
An Illustrated Weekly

Author: Various

Release Date: March 17, 2009 [EBook #28347]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARPER'S YOUNG PEOPLE, FEB 10, 1880 ***

Produced by Annie McGuire

[Illustration: HARPER'S

YOUNG PEOPLE

AN ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.]

* * * * *

VOL. I.--NO. 15. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. PRICE FOUR
CENTS.

Tuesday, February 10, 1880. Copyright, 1880, by HARPER & BROTHERS. $1.50
per Year, in Advance.

* * * * *

[Illustration: A WINTER MORNING.]

OLD FATHER TIME.

"Professor," said May, turning on the sofa where she was lying, "Jack
has brought me a calendar that runs for ever so many years. You know the
doctor says I'll not be well for two whole years, or perhaps three. I
have been wondering what month among them all I shall be able to run
about in; and then I began to think who could have made the first
calendar, and what led him to do it."

"That's very simple, May. Old Father Time just measured the days off
with his hour-glass in the first place, and marked them down with the
point of his scythe. The world has known all about it ever since."

"Please don't, Jack. Let the Professor tell."

"It would be hard, May, to tell who made the first calendar," answered
the Professor. "All nations seem to have had their methods of counting
the years and months long before they began writing histories, so that
there is no record of the origin of the custom. The Book of Genesis
mentions the lights in the heavens as being 'for signs and for seasons,
and for days and years.' And Moses uses the word _year_ so often that
we see that it must have been common to count the years among those who
lived before him."

"The number 1880 means that it is so many years since the birth of
Christ, does it not?" asked Joe.

"Yes," said the Professor, "it has been the custom among Christian
nations to reckon the years from that great event. They began to do thi