ave you been about, Mona, my child?" he asked, as soon as he had
shaken hands with Willie.

"We've been helping the sun to rise," said Mona, merrily.

"No, no," said Willie; "we've only been having a peep at him in bed,
before he got up."

"Oh, yes," chimed in Mona. "And he was so fast asleep!--and snoring,"
she added, with a comical expression and tone, as if it were a thing not
to be mentioned save as a secret.

But Willie did not like the word, and her father was of the same mind.

"No, no," said Mr Shepherd; "that's not respectful, Mona. I don't like
you to talk that way, even in fun, of the great light of the earth.
There are more good reasons for objecting to it than you would quite
understand yet. Willie would not talk like that, I am sure. Tell me what
you have been about, my boy."

Willie explained the whole matter, and asked if he might call Mona the
next time he went out with his kite in the morning.

Mr Shepherd consented at once; and Mona said he had only to call from
his window into their garden, and she would be sure to hear him even if
she was asleep.

The next thing Willie did was to construct a small windlass in the
garden, with which to wind up or let out the string of the kite; and
when the next fit morning arrived, Mona and he went out together. The
wind blowing right through the garden, they did not go to the open
field, but sent up the kite from the windlass, and Mona was able by
means of the winch to let out the string, while Willie kept watching for
the moment when the golden ball should catch the light. They did the
same for several mornings after, and Willie managed, with the master's
help, to calculate exactly the height to which the ball had flown when
first it gained a peep of the sun in bed.

One windy evening they sent the kite up in the hope that it would fly
till the morning; but the wind fell in the night, and when the sun came
near there was no golden ball in the air to greet him. So, instead of
rejoicing in its glitter far aloft, they had to set out, guided by the
string, to find the fallen Lucifer. The kite was of small consequence,
but the golden ball Willie could not replace. Alas! that very evening he
had added a great length of string--so much, that when the wind ceased
the kite could just reach the river, into which it fell; and when the
searchers at length drew Sun-scout from the water they found his glory
had departed; the golden ball had been beaten and ground upon