Article November 24, 1934 Issue

A Lesson from the Moon

[Written Especially for Children]

ALICE DAVIS SHELMIRE

Janet loved to watch the full moon. It beamed upon her through the nursery window as she lay in her little bed, tucked in for the night, warm and cozy. Just like one of mother's shiny new pie plates, she thought. For Janet was a very young person, to whom permission was often given to sit by the kitchen table while her mother baked.

Sometimes while she was looking at the moon, she made up reasons to suit herself about how it was that a pie plate ever got up in the sky and how it could stay up there. Of course, if she had spoken to her mother about it, she could have found out all she wanted to know, for mother was wise about giving answers to questions. But since Janet did not say anything to anyone about the moon, she went on believing in her own way.

After a time, however, she went to school and learned to read. Before long she discovered all sorts of interesting things in her books. One lesson was about her old friend, the moon. To her great surprise she learned that it was not a fiat, shining plate at all, as she had believed it to be. The moon was really a huge, rough ball! And the book also said that the moon has no light of its own, but that it seems to be bright because the light of the sun is reflected from it, just as bits of stone in the road shine when the automobile lights strike them. Well, away went that pie plate moon forever! It would never seem real again, she knew, for she had learned the truth about it.

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