MY dear little readers, I have told you about dear Aunt Polly, who was so kind to Ray and Dorothy, but I have not said a word about their Uncle John Philip.
Uncle John Philip was a very learned professor. He lived in a great, gloomy house that was filled with queer-looking specimens from all parts of the world.
There were cabinets, the shelves of which contained stones of every variety, besides queer-looking stuffed birds and animals.
There were great, thick volumes on his library shelves, and strange maps and charts on the walls. It was very seldom that the children went to visit Uncle John Philip, but whenever they did they were so awed by all the strange sights in the lonely house that they were always glad to go home.
One night there was a fire and the professor’s house with all its strange furniture was totally destroyed. Then Uncle John Philip came to live at Dorothy May’s for awhile, and she became better acquainted with the great professor.
Now it so happened that Uncle John Philip, though a very wise professor, was a very foolish uncle.
He had studied and could explain many wonderful laws of nature, but he did not understand the heart of a little child.
One day when dear little Dorothy was asking him about the man in the moon he said, “Tut, tut, child, uninhabitable, no water, no atmosphere.”
Dorothy did not understand in the least what he meant, but she said:
“Don’t you like Mother Goose, where the cow jumped over the moon?”