“I have caught the moon and put it into mother’s wash-tub. Come and see.”
“Caught the moon!” exclaimed Peter. “But there it is up in the sky!”
“Not at all,” replied she. “That is not the moon.”
The night was still and warm. Peter-Wise followed Tiffany to a water-meadow, in the middle of which was her mother’s wash-tub.
“There!” she cried, pointing. “Go and see if the moon isn’t in that tub.”
So he went up to it, looked over the edge, and there, sure enough, was the round, silver moon shining up at him.
“Well, but there are not two moons,” he said, looking at the other moon in the sky.
“How foolish you are!” said Tiffany. “That moon in the sky is just the reflection of the real moon in this tub.”
Peter-Wise was determined to make sure, so he took a penny out of his pocket and dropped it into the tub. It fell through the moon with a splash.
“Oh ho!” he exclaimed. “Whoever heard of a penny falling through the moon? This moon is made of water.”