We all noticed it, and a feeling of relief
stole over us. In the course of twenty minutes it became so light that
we could discern objects round us quite plainly. The night chill, too,
seemed to go from the air.
Suddenly, as we rattled along, Addison jumped up from his seat and
turned to us. "I know now what this is!" he cried. "Why didn't I think
of it before?"
"What is it--if you know?" cried Catherine and Theodora at once.
"The eclipse! The total eclipse of the sun!" exclaimed Addison. "I
remember now reading something about it in the _Maine Farmer_ a
fortnight ago. It was to be on the 7th--and this is it!"
At that time advance notices of such phenomena were not so widely
published as they are now; at the old farm, too, we did not take a daily
newspaper. So one of the great astronomical events of the last century
had come and gone, and we had not known what it was until it was over.
Except for the dun canopy of smoke and clouds over the sun we should
have guessed at once, of course, the cause of the darkness; but as it
was, the eclipse had given us an anxious afternoon; and although the
rainbow in the morning had probably not the slightest connection with
the eclipse,--indeed, could not have had,--it had greatly heightened the
feeling of awe and superstitious dread with which we had beheld night
fall in the middle of the afternoon!
By the time we got home it was light again.
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