stance is measured, so that we can
understand it?"

"And then, Professor," said Jack, "I would like to know what _parallax_
means."

"There," said Gus, "is another big word of Jack's--pallylacks,
knickknacks, gimcracks, slapjacks!"

"Hush, you goose."

[Illustration]

"I think," said the Professor, "I can answer May's and Jack's questions
both at once, as they are very closely connected. Suppose that at night,
when you look down the street, you see two gas lamps, one much farther
off than the other. Then if you go across the street, the nearer lamp
will seem to move in the opposite way from what you did. Thus, in the
diagram, when you are at A, the nearer lamp is on the right of the
other, and when you go over to B and look at it, it is on the left. This
change in direction is called _parallax_. Now we can imagine the nearer
one of the lights to be the moon, and that an observatory, or tower with
a telescope in it, is located at A, from which the direction of the moon
is carefully noted at six o'clock in the morning. Then by six in the
evening the earth, spinning round on its axis, will have carried the
observatory about 8000 miles away from A, and placed it at, say, B. If
the moon's direction be again noted, it is very easy to calculate her
distance by a branch of mathematics called trigonometry, which Jack, I
have no doubt, has already studied."

[Illustration: THAT NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY BOY.

"Gimee more pie-ee!"]

A FOUR-FOOTED MESSENGER

Just after the raising of the siege of Fort Stanwix, in the Mohawk
Valley, the neighborhood continued to be infested with prowling bands of
Indians.

Captain Gregg and a companion were out shooting one day, and were just
preparing to return to the fort, when two shots were fired in quick
succession, and Gregg saw his comrade fall, while he himself felt a
wound in his side which so weakened him that he speedily fell.

Two Indians at the same time sprang out of the bushes, and rushed toward
him. Gregg saw that his only hope was to feign death, and succeeded in
lying perfectly still while the Indians tore off his scalp.

As soon as they had gone, he endeavored to reach his companion, but had
no sooner got to his feet than he fell again. A second effort succeeded
no better, but the third time he managed to reach the spot where his
comrade lay, only to find him lifeless. He rested his head upon the
bloody body, and the position afforded him some relief.

But t