
A curious seven‑year‑old named Rollo spends his autumn days watching the sun’s beam dance across his family’s barn floor. When a carriage arrives with his parents and younger brother, he rushes to ask his father whether the sun truly reaches farther inside during winter. Though his question is brushed aside, Riddle‑like wonder stays with him, prompting him to sketch chalk marks on the barn’s south side each noon.
With his friend Jonas and later his clever cousin Lucy, Rollo turns simple observation into a small scientific project. Lucy explains the sun’s seasonal arc, and together they plan to track the exact point where the light penetrates deepest, hoping to pinpoint the moment when the sun sits lowest in the sky. Their experiments become a playful lesson in astronomy, showing how a child’s relentless curiosity can turn everyday farm life into a laboratory of light.
Language
en
Duration
~2 hours (153K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by D Alexander, Andrew Wainwright and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Release date
2008-04-05
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1803–1879
A 19th-century American writer and educator, he became famous for lively, morally grounded books written especially for young readers. His stories and histories helped shape early children's literature in the United States.
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