The camp was pitched and the rest of the day given up to writing voluminous accounts of the marvel, and correcting astronomical tables to fit it.Toward midnight a demoniacal shriek was heard, then a clattering and rumbling noise, and the next instant a vast terrific eye shot by, with a long tail attached, and disappeared in the gloom, still uttering triumphant shrieks.
The poor damp laborers were stricken to the heart with fright, and stampeded for the high grass in a body.But not the scientists.They had no superstitions.They calmly proceeded to exchange theories.
The ancient geographer's opinion was asked.He went into his shell and deliberated long and profoundly.When he came out at last, they all knew by his worshiping countenance that he brought light.Said he:
"Give thanks for this stupendous thing which we have been permitted to witness.It is the Vernal Equinox!"There were shoutings and great rejoicings.
"But," said the Angle-Worm, uncoiling after reflection, "this is dead summer-time.""Very well," said the Turtle, "we are far from our region; the season differs with the difference of time between the two points.""Ah, true: True enough.But it is night.How should the sun pass in the night?""In these distant regions he doubtless passes always in the night at this hour.""Yes, doubtless that is true.But it being night, how is it that we could see him?""It is a great mystery.I grant that.But I am persuaded that the humidity of the atmosphere in these remote regions is such that particles of daylight adhere to the disk and it was by aid of these that we were enabled to see the sun in the dark."This was deemed satisfactory, and due entry was made of the decision.
But about this moment those dreadful shriekings were heard again; again the rumbling and thundering came speeding up out of the night; and once more a flaming great eye flashed by and lost itself in gloom and distance.
The camp laborers gave themselves up for lost.The savants were sorely perplexed.Here was a marvel hard to account for.They thought and they talked, they talked and they thought.Finally the learned and aged Lord Grand-Daddy-Longlegs, who had been sitting in deep study, with his slender limbs crossed and his stemmy arms folded, said:
"Deliver your opinions, brethren, and then I will tell my thought--for Ithink I have solved this problem."
"So be it, good your lordship," piped the weak treble of the wrinkled and withered Professor Woodlouse, "for we shall hear from your lordship's lips naught but wisdom." [Here the speaker threw in a mess of trite, threadbare, exasperating quotations from the ancient poets and philosophers, delivering them with unction in the sounding grandeurs of the original tongues, they being from the Mastodon, the Dodo, and other dead languages.] "Perhaps I ought not to presume to meddle with matters pertaining to astronomy at all, in such a presence as this, I who have made it the business of my life to delve only among the riches of the extinct languages and unearth the opulence of their ancient lore; but still, as unacquainted as I am with the noble science of astronomy, I beg with deference and humility to suggest that inasmuch as the last of these wonderful apparitions proceeded in exactly the opposite direction from that pursued by the first, which you decide to be the Vernal Equinox, and greatly resembled it in all particulars, is it not possible, nay certain, that this last is the Autumnal Equi--"" O-o-o!" "O-o-o! go to bed! go to bed!" with annoyed derision from everybody.So the poor old Woodlouse retreated out of sight, consumed with shame.
Further discussion followed, and then the united voice of the commission begged Lord Longlegs to speak.He said:
"Fellow-scientists, it is my belief that we have witnessed a thing which has occurred in perfection but once before in the knowledge of created beings.It is a phenomenon of inconceivable importance and interest, view it as one may, but its interest to us is vastly heightened by an added knowledge of its nature which no scholar has heretofore possessed or even suspected.This great marvel which we have just witnessed, fellow-savants (it almost takes my breath away), is nothing less than the transit of Venus!"Every scholar sprang to his feet pale with astonishment.Then ensued tears, handshakings, frenzied embraces, and the most extravagant jubilations of every sort.But by and by, as emotion began to retire within bounds, and reflection to return to the front, the accomplished Chief Inspector Lizard observed:
"But how is this? Venus should traverse the sun's surface, not the earth's."The arrow went home.It earned sorrow to the breast of every apostle of learning there, for none could deny that this was a formidable criticism.
But tranquilly the venerable Duke crossed his limbs behind his ears and said:
"My friend has touched the marrow of our mighty discovery.Yes--all that have lived before us thought a transit of Venus consisted of a flight across the sun's face; they thought it, they maintained it, they honestly believed it, simple hearts, and were justified in it by the limitations of their knowledge; but to us has been granted the inestimable boon of proving that the transit occurs across the earth's face, for we have SEENit!"
The assembled wisdom sat in speechless adoration of this imperial intellect.All doubts had instantly departed, like night before the lightning.
