"Is it twelve o'clock here, then, before or after it is twelve o'clock there?"
"Suppose the River Mississippi is fifteen degrees from us, how long is it twelve o'clock here before it is twelve o'clock there?"
"When it is twelve o'clock here, then, what time will it be there?"
Some will probably answer "one," and some "eleven." If so, the step is too long, and may be subdivided thus:
"When it is noon here, is the sun going toward the Mississippi, or has he passed it?"
"Then has noon gone by at that river, or has it not yet come?"
"Then will it be one hour before or one hour after noon?"
"Then will it be eleven or one?"
Such minuteness and simplicity would, in ordinary cases, not be necessary. I go into it here merely to show how, by simply subdividing the steps, a subject ordinarily perplexing may be made plain. The reader will observe that in the above there are no explanations by the teacher—there are not even leading questions; that is, there are no questions the form of which suggests the answers desired. The pupil goes on from step to step simply because he has but one short step to take at a time.
"Can it be noon, then," continues the teacher, "here and at a place fifteen degrees west of us at the same time?"