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_64_

Mars
so' lar (ler)
Ve' nus
plan' ets
Mer' cu ry
di am' e ter
com' pass es
sat' el lite
tel' e scope
grad' u al ly
in' ter est ing
cir cum' fer ence

THE SUN'S FAMILY

"Please tell me a story, Frank" said Philip, as the two boys sat in the
shade of a large tree.

"I have heard and read many wonderful stories. I will try to recall
one," said Frank.

"Let me see. Well--perhaps--I think that the most wonderful story I have
ever read is that of the solar system, or the sun's family."

"Solar system!" repeated Philip. "That certainly sounds hard enough to
puzzle even a fairy. Please tell me all about it."

"That I should find much too hard" answered Frank. "But I'll try to tell
you what little I know. You see the sun there, don't you--the great
shining sun? Do you think the sun moves?"

"Of course it moves," said Philip. "I always see it in the morning when
I am in the garden. It rises first above the bushes, then over the trees
and houses; by evening it has traveled across the sky, when it sinks
below the houses and trees, out of sight on the other side of the town."

"Now that is quite a mistake," said Frank, "You think that the sun is
traveling all that way along the sky, whereas it is really we--we on
this big ball of earth--who are moving. We are whirling around on the
outer surface, rushing on at the rate--let me think--at the rate of more
than one thousand miles a minute!"

"Frank, what do you mean?" cried Philip.

"I mean that the earth is moving many times faster than a ball moves
when shot from the mouth of a cannon!"

"Do you expect me to believe that, Frank! I can hardly believe that this
big, solid earth moves at all; but to think of it with all the cities,
towns, and people whirling round and round faster than a ball from the
mouth of a cannon, while we never feel that it stirs one inch,--this is
much harder to believe than all that the fairies have ever told us."

"Yes, but it is quite true for all that," replied Frank.

"I have learned much about the motions of the planets, and viewed the
stars one night through a telescope. As I looked through this
instrument, the stars appeared to me much larger than ever before. The
earth is a planet, and there are besides our earth seven large planets
and many small ones, which also whirl around the sun. Some of these
planets are larger than our world. Some of them also move much faster.

"The sun is in