The Rollo series Author:Jacob Abbott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 49 CHAPTER IV DEGREES. Near the house where Miss Mary lived was a little hill with a path through the trees leading tp the summit. Miss Mary said that t... more »hey would go up to the top of that hill, for there they could see the stars aud the sky better; and she said that she was going to tell them something about the stars and the sky. The view by the moonlight from the top of this hill was very beautiful. One side of the landscape at a distance was pretty level, and the sky came down and met the ground in a smooth line. On the other side there were some mountains, and the moon tipped their summits with a silvery light. There were a number of floating clouds in the sky; and the moon was sometimes wading through them, and sometimes it shone out clear. There were ..not a great many stars. " New/' said Miss Mary, a I am going to explain to you how they measure and de note distances in the sky ; and you must attend as carefully as if you were listening to a lecture. " The first tiling to explain to you,5' said Miss Mary, " is the horizon. Do you knew what the horizon is t " "Yes,"said Lucy; "the line where the sky and the land meet." "That is commonly called the horizon/ said Miss Mary, " but that is not it exactly. For instance, look out that way where the mountains are. Does the horizon ruti along on the tops of the mountains ? " " No," said Lucy, " I suppose not. I suppose the horizon is where the land would meet the sky if the mountains were taken away.7' - That is right, said Miss Mary. " The horizon is the line where the land would meet the sky if the land was perfectly level. We can see the exact horizon when We look off upon the sea; but we never'Call see it upon the land, because the land is never precisely level. "However," continued Miss Mary,...« less