midnight
When he found that he was not going to alight on the moon as he had thought , he broke some of the phials and descended to earth again . '' `` What a ridiculous story , '' laughed Ethel Blue , kneeling at Helen 's feet with a heap of flowers beside her on the floor . `` The rest of it is quite as foolish . When he landed on the earth again he found that the sun was still shining , although according to his calculation it ought to be midnight ; and he also did not recognize the place he dropped upon in spite of the fact that he had apparently gone straight up and fallen straight down . Strange people surrounded him and he had difficulty in making himself understood . After a time he was taken before an official from whom he learned that on account of the rotation of the earth under him while he was in the air , although he had risen when but two leagues from Paris he had descended in Canada . '' The younger girls laughed delightedly at this absurd tale , as they worked at their task .