k with me, which
is another reason for not riding twenty or thirty in a carriage."

"Oh, uncle! uncle! twenty or thirty!"

"Well, you are a baker's dozen, at least, that you cannot deny. I quite
long to get to town! I believe I am as much of a boy as Harry, there, or
Lewis--I _really_ wish I could put off Sunday just for one day, I am so
impatient!"

"It will be an admirable exercise of your noblest faculties, uncle,"
said Cornelia, slyly. "I am rather impatient myself, even at my mature
age. But the _moral discipline_, uncle, that is so invaluable that we
ought not to wish it to be otherwise."

"Ah, you witch! I believe in my heart this is your revenge for my
refusing to take you to town with me," rejoined her uncle.

"Not a bit of it--I bear no malice--it is only my native and
unconquerable pertness, which I sometimes fear may get me into a
difficulty with some one yet. But I am not at all afraid of you, dear
uncle; I know you understand that it's only my way."

"Certainly, certainly; I should be a cross old fellow if I wished to
repress your youthful spirits."

"But, uncle," said Charlie Bolton, "couldn't you put off Sunday as Dean
Swift, or somebody or other, put off the eclipse? That would obviate all
the difficulty."

"I never heard that story," cried George Wyndham, "But every one knows
about 'Hail Columbia' _putting on_ an eclipse."

"I don't, I must own," replied Cornelia, laughing. "Do tell it straight,
if you can, you monkey."

"I'll try, my own true sister. If it wasn't Hail Columbia, it was
Columbus, and that's all one, the whole world knows. When the Indians
began to discover that the Spaniards were not gods, as they at first
thought, they became a little obstreperous, and wanted to starve them
out--quite natural, under the circumstances. But Columbus, from his
knowledge of astronomy, was aware that a total eclipse of the moon would
take place the next night. So he called a meeting of the natives, and
informed them that they had brought upon themselves the vengeance of the
Great Spirit by their conduct--that at a certain hour, the light of the
moon would be nearly put out, and its orb would look like blood, as a
sign to them of the displeasure of Heaven. And when the poor creatures
really saw it happen as he had said, they were nearly frightened to
death, and came to him, laden with provisions, and begging him to pray
to the Great Spirit, that he might remove his wrath from them. Now I
call th