"Our ocean, Daisy, you will remember, is an ocean of fluid matter. The
ocean of flame which surrounds the sun is gaseous matter--or a sort of
ocean of air, in a state of incandescence. This does not touch the sun,
but floats round it, upon or above another atmosphere of another
kind--like the way in which our clouds float in the air over our heads.
You know how breaks come and go in the clouds; so you can imagine that
this luminous covering of the sun parts in places, and shews the sun
through, and then closes up again."
"Is _that_ the way it is?" said Daisy.
"Even so."
"Dr. Sandford, you said a word just now I did not understand."
"Only one?" said the doctor.
"I think there was only one I did not know in the least."
"Can you direct me to it?"
"You said something about an ocean of air in a state--what state?"
"Incandescence?"
"That was it."
"That is a state where it gives out white heat."
"I thought everything at the sun must be on fire," said Daisy looking
meditatively at the doctor.
"You see you were mistaken. It has only a covering of clouds of fire--so
to speak.
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