T TRUTH to tell she does make up faces, very different and queer ones, and no one Pansy sees exactly the same one at the same time, and since there are ten thousand Pansies, more or less, you see Miss Nancy Moon is smarter in “making faces” than some of you. Another “truth to tell” is that the “moon’s phases” means appearances, or looks, and so why is it not quite the same as Nancy Moon’s faces? We’ll think it is. Every Pansy knows some astronomy or—ought to. Come, then, and from this time on till you are a hundred years old know that astronomy means star-law, or all about the bright worlds in the sky. Now you know some astronomy. The moon is one of these worlds, and is very near our world—only two hundred and forty thousand miles away—and is one of the lamps to light it up. You must begin to learn about it. That you may call moonology. One of the first things to learn in moonology is how she makes so many faces; once a month a long, narrow bent face, then a little fatter, and so on till it is full as a—beer keg. Of course you mustn’t think she really drinks that stuff. I guess there is no license in Moontown. If you will study the picture with all your might and main a half-hour to-day, another to-morrow, and so on, and then get grandpapa to put on his specs and help—you’ll surely answer the riddle, how the faces (or phases) are made. Then some day you may become a great astronomer—like Tycho Brahe or John Kepler. L. moon chart double line WHEN you’ve got a thing to say, Say it! Don’t take half a day. When your tale’s got little in it, Crowd the whole thing in a minute! Life is short—a fleeting vapor— Don’t fill up a ream of paper With a tale, which, at a pinch, Could be cornered in an inch! Boil it down until it simmers; Polish it until it glimmers. When you’ve got a thing to say, Say it! Don’t take half a day. —Selected. very large telescope double line
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