Moonstroke by Adelaide D. Wellman

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 2, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 18.

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Moonstroke

By Adelaide D. Wellman

A Story for the Little Folks

By ADELAIDE D. WELLMAN

"THAT is funny."

Olive wondered what Perry found that was funny, in the Bible; for he was reading his daily chapter.

She soon learned what it was, for Perry read aloud the verse; and Olive too thought it funny, or at least strange.

"The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night."

That was what Perry read, and he said it was in Psalm 121.

"Who ever heard of the moon's hurting any one?" he asked.

"I have," replied a voice from across the room.

Both of the children looked up in surprise. It was Mr. Wilbur who had answered. He was a stranger who was boarding for a few days in their mountain home, and he did not talk to them much. He spent most of his time studying plants, and animals, and rocks, and other things in nature.

"How does the moon hurt anybody?" asked Perry.

"In a climate no warmer than this, it perhaps does not hurt any one," Mr. Wilbur said; "but in some very warm countries, the people fear moonstroke more than sunstroke."

"Is he just joking, papa?" Olive asked, in a half whisper; but her father replied, "You may be sure the Bible would not speak of danger from the moon, if there were no such danger."

Mr. Wilbur continued: "Any one who sleeps in the bright moonlight of the tropics is likely to be moonstruck. Sailors sometimes suffer thus from sleeping on ship deck. Mild cases have occurred in this country even."

"How does it affect a person?" the children's mother inquired; and their guest answered: "The mouth is drawn to one side, and the eyes become weak, and there is more or less nausea."

"What is nausea?" Olive asked. Could you tell her?

"Does the face always stay one-sided after that?" questioned Perry; and Mr. Wilbur replied, "In some cases, but others recover."

Then the children's father remarked, "This shows us that when people find things in the Bible that seem to them like mistakes, the people are mistaken, instead of the Bible."