“O dear,” said Rollo, with a laugh, “put a pin in! That’s no way to mark a shadow.”
“It isn’t a shadow,” said Lucy.
“Yes, it is,” said Rollo.
“No,” said Lucy; “a shadow is dark, and this is bright.”
“Yes,” said Rollo, “this is a bright shadow; some shadows are bright, and some are dark.”
“O Rollo!” said Lucy; and she turned away from him, a little out of humor.
The truth was, that Rollo and Lucy were getting decidedly into a dispute. From the sublime heights of practical astronomy, they had fallen, by a sad and very rapid descent, to a childish altercation. Rollo had a very high idea of the superior facilities afforded by Jonas’s barn floor for observing the daily changes in the sun’s meridian altitude, and he did not like the idea of Lucy’s finding that she had equally good opportunities for observation at her home. Lucy was a little fretted at Rollo’s captious spirit; but then her mind soon became unruffled again, and she turned back towards Rollo, and said, as they walked along the yard,
“I don’t think the sunshine on the floor is a shadow, Rollo; but then I don’t see why a shadow would not do, just as well.”