Part 10

Right opposite the sun. But that will not do, for it is not always opposite to the sun. Perhaps the world goes waddling along like a duck, first on one side a little bit, and then on the other. This would bring the sun opposite to either place.

It would be a very regular waddle. We will try your scheme. Pick up that round wooden ball there. Carry it round the capstan, and see whether by twisting it from one side to the other you can keep the south pole shone upon for six months, and the north pole shone upon for the other six months.”

James now makes a trial. But after all sorts of turns he failed in producing the English winter and summer in the proper time and for the proper length of time.

“I must give it up, father.

Just slant your ball a little out of the perpendicular, and carry it round your sun without moving it from its position.

Capital! It explains the whole. When it was in front of the capstan, the south pole was toward it; that was the Australian summer. When I went to the right side, neither end was inclined toward it; this was the sun over the equator. When I came to the back of it, the north pole was toward it; this was the English summer. When I reached the left side, my equator was opposite to it; this was the sun’s second crossing of the Line. When I got to the front again, there was my south pole pointing to the capstan again.

Then you really understand the seasons. Of course the spring in England is the autumn of Australia. But I have something else to recall to your recollection. Have you forgotten the old church on the hill at home?

No, father, and never shall. How pretty it looked when the sun rose over it upon a fine spring morning, with the birds all alive with their song, and the bees down upon the flowers!

Did the sun rise over the church at hay harvest?

No; I remember then it came up from behind the squire’s house to the left of it.

Where was the sun first seen upon a cold winter’s morning?

Aye, I fancy I see his red face looking lazily over the parsonage to the right of the church, and that when we had done breakfast, too.

How came the sun to jump about in that manner?

Why, do you see, he did not hop from one side to the other. He would get a little further from the church each morning till he rose over the squire’s house: then, as if ashamed, he seemed to creep back to his old place. Afterwards he appeared to take it into his head gradually to get on to the parsonage, and then he would once more turn to the church.

Which was on the north-side of the church, James?

The squire’s house. Now, I think I can explain all without your questions this time, my dear father.

Then go on by all means.

The sun rose over the squire’s house in summer, for that was the north side; the north pole was then inclined to the sun. At spring it was half-way between the squire’s and the parsonage; this was the sun over the equator. In winter the sun rose at the furthest part to the south; this was where the north pole was turned away, and the south side turned to the sun.

Well, then, you have satisfactorily explained the seasons.”

PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES.

It was with no little impatience that James had waited for the first appearance of the Southern Cross, the emblem of Australia. He first noticed it when a long way north of the equator, and each evening afterwards bestowed a considerable attention upon it. As he made southing on his voyage the glorious constellation rose higher and higher in the heavens. Hour after hour would he sit, marking its progress, wondering much to see it more or less upright according to the time of night, and more or less declining from the perpendicular at the same returning hour of evening upon different days.

James could understand the Cross seeming to perform a circle round the south pole of the heavens, as he had seen the Bear round the north pole, from the rotundity of the earth and its daily motion.

It was quite natural, then, that the lad should be so enthusiastic when he spoke of the constellation to his father in these terms:

“O that pretty Southern Cross! I like it more and more as I get down to the south. I did feel sad to see the old Bear drop gradually, night after night, till it seemed to sink for ever in the northern Atlantic; but I have a new friend here, that keeps rising higher and higher each night, as if to welcome us to our southern home. How it would please many boys in Europe to see the Cross!

But it was seen in Europe formerly.

Another puzzle, dear father. Did it run away from the south pole to have a look at the north one?

It was not a run, but a gradual slide out of its place, and as gradual a slide back into it again.

What a queer trick! Is it on its rambles now, I wonder?