of me, Mistah Anton," declared Dan'l.

"Not a bit of it," replied Anton. "I'll show you just why. The sun rises
in the east, doesn't it?"

"Sho'."

"So, if you walked a long way east, you'd see the sun quicker, wouldn't
you?"

"Ah s'pose Ah would," the darky responded hesitatingly.

"And your watch would show that the sun rose earlier."

"Sho'!"

"So noon would come sooner, too. And if you walked west, it would be
longer before the sun rose and noon would be later, that is, figured by
your watch."

"Ah declah Ah never thought o' that!"

"So, you see, every place has a different time."

"But," the darky protested, "it's the same time when Ah goes to
Vicksburg."

"Certainly," the lad answered, "and if you went away to Texas it would
seem the same, but it really wouldn't be. The clocks change four times
in the United States, don't they, Ross?"

"Yes, four times," the older lad agreed. "East of a line running through
Buffalo, Wheeling, Asheville and Atlanta, time is called 'Eastern Time.'
Everything west of that line is really an hour later, so the clock has
to be put back an hour. If a train comes from the east into the station
at Wheeling, at ten o'clock in the morning, and only stays in the depot
five minutes, the timetable shows that it left at five minutes past
nine."

"What-all happens to that yar hour?" asked Dan'l.

"It's just lost," Ross declared. "That standard of time, which is called
'Central Time,' reaches clear across to the middle of the Dakotas, and
the eastern boundaries of Colorado, and New Mexico. There you lose
another hour, 'Mountain Time' extending as far as the ridge of the
Rockies. From there to the Pacific coast, it's called 'Pacific Time' and
is another hour later.

"You see, Dan'l," he continued, "when it's noon in Washington and New
York, it's eleven o'clock in Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans; ten
o'clock in Butte, Cheyenne and Denver; and nine o'clock in Spokane, San
Francisco and Los Angeles."

"Who-all fixed it up that way?"

"The railways," Ross answered, "but the various states have O.K.ed it.
You've got to arrange the setting of time in some definite way for the
handling of railroads and telegraphs and things of that sort. It seems
funny, Dan'l, but if you send a telegram here to a friend in San
Francisco, he'll get it, according to his watch, nearly two hours before
you sent it."

Ross stooped down as he spoke, and again measured the shadow of the
pole, as it l