"There," said Ellen, "now the sunshine is on the fence, and the road, and everything. I wonder what is the reason that the sun shines first upon the top of the mountain, and then comes so slowly down the side; why don't it shine on the whole at once?"
Mr. Van Brunt shook his head in ignorance. "He guessed it always did so," he said.
"Yes," said Ellen, "I suppose it does; but that's the very thing I want to know the reason why. And I noticed just now, it shone in my face before it touched my hands. Isn't it queer?"
"Humph! there's a great many queer things, if you come to that," said Mr. Van Brunt, philosophically.
But Ellen's head ran on from one thing to another, and her next question was not so wide of the subject as her companion might have thought.
"Mr. Van Brunt, are there any schools about here?"
"Schools?" said the person addressed; "yes there's plenty of schools."
"Good ones?" said Ellen.
"Well, I don't exactly know about that; there's Captain Conklin's, that had ought to be a good 'un; he's a regular smart man, they say."
"Whereabouts is that?" said Ellen.