"Oh, uncle! uncle! twenty or thirty!"
"Well, you are a baker's dozen, at least, that you cannot deny. I quite long to get to town! I believe I am as much of a boy as Harry, there, or Lewis—I really wish I could put off Sunday just for one day, I am so impatient!"
"It will be an admirable exercise of your noblest faculties, uncle," said Cornelia, slyly. "I am rather impatient myself, even at my mature age. But the moral discipline, uncle, that is so invaluable that we ought not to wish it to be otherwise."
"Ah, you witch! I believe in my heart this is your revenge for my refusing to take you to town with me," rejoined her uncle.
"Not a bit of it—I bear no malice—it is only my native and unconquerable pertness, which I sometimes fear may get me into a difficulty with some one yet. But I am not at all afraid of you, dear uncle; I know you understand that it's only my way."
"Certainly, certainly; I should be a cross old fellow if I wished to repress your youthful spirits."
"But, uncle," said Charlie Bolton, "couldn't you put off Sunday as Dean Swift, or somebody or other, put off the eclipse? That would obviate all the difficulty."
"I never heard that story," cried George Wyndham, "But every one knows about 'Hail Columbia' putting on an eclipse."
"I don't, I must own," replied Cornelia, laughing. "Do tell it straight, if you can, you monkey."
"I'll try, my own true sister. If it wasn't Hail Columbia, it was Columbus, and that's all one, the whole world knows. When the Indians began to discover that the Spaniards were not gods, as they at first thought, they became a little obstreperous, and wanted to starve them out—quite natural, under the circumstances. But Columbus, from his knowledge of astronomy, was aware that a total eclipse of the moon would take place the next night. So he called a meeting of the natives, and informed them that they had brought upon themselves the vengeance of the Great Spirit by their conduct—that at a certain hour, the light of the moon would be nearly put out, and its orb would look like blood, as a sign to them of the displeasure of Heaven. And when the poor creatures really saw it happen as he had said, they were nearly frightened to death, and came to him, laden with provisions, and begging him to pray to the Great Spirit, that he might remove his wrath from them. Now I call that putting on an eclipse."