The eagle’s skeleton
When the eagle’s skeleton was finished Peter thought it looked more like a big arrowhead than an eagle, but when Uncle Henry had drawn the outline ofAquila, the Society of Star-Gazers admitted the resemblance to the bird.
“Now where’s that sea goat?” inquired Peter.
“Follow the line of the first three stars we found inAquiladownward, and just a little way beyond where it ends in the tip of the eagle’s wing you will see two rather faint stars, close together. (18) They are at one corner of a ‘cocked hat’ such as you make out of newspaper when you play soldier—sort of a Napoleon’s hat. It is upside down. When you find it and put down pebbles for stars I’ll show you how the good imaginations the ancient people had turned the cocked hat into a sea goat.”
This shows howCapricornusthe sea goat lookedwhen the children and Uncle Henry had finished him. I leave it to you to decide whether or not he looks more like a cocked hat.
Capricornus
“When we have foundCapricornusthe sea goat,” said Uncle Henry, “it is easy to findAquariusor the water carrier. Just prolong the line that connects the goat’s right foot with his tail until it runs close to a little triangle of three stars with another in the centre. (19) It looks a little like the head of the Serpent we found squirming inOphiuchus’ hands, but it is the water-jarAquariusis carrying.”
“Oh, I see it,” cried Paul.
The other stars inAquariuswere soon found and represented by pebbles. Then Uncle Henry drewthe outline that finished the Water-Carrier, like this:
The Water-Carrier
“Now we’re all through?” inquired Betty.
“Until next Christmas,” smiled back Uncle Henry.
“Can’t we have just one more poem?” teased Paul.
“What shall it be about?” asked Uncle Henry, with the air of a man who could write a poem to order on any subject.
“One about the lovely swan,” commanded Betty, “you haven’t made one up about the swan.”
Uncle Henry was in a quandary; he wanted to please everybody with the last poem. He lay down on his back and looked up at the sky for so long that the children thought he must have fallen asleep.
Finally Uncle Henry began to recite,
“The eagle of StarlandGot tired of his tree,And challenged the swan to a race.‘Come up from the water!Fly up and be free!To northward I’ll beat you a chase.’The swan thought of shiversAnd icebergs and frost—He made up his mind to race South.So they are still flying—Their race can’t be lost—Till Gabriel blows with his mouth.”
“The eagle of StarlandGot tired of his tree,And challenged the swan to a race.‘Come up from the water!Fly up and be free!To northward I’ll beat you a chase.’The swan thought of shiversAnd icebergs and frost—He made up his mind to race South.So they are still flying—Their race can’t be lost—Till Gabriel blows with his mouth.”
“The eagle of StarlandGot tired of his tree,And challenged the swan to a race.
‘Come up from the water!Fly up and be free!To northward I’ll beat you a chase.’
The swan thought of shiversAnd icebergs and frost—He made up his mind to race South.
So they are still flying—Their race can’t be lost—Till Gabriel blows with his mouth.”
“What’ll Gabriel blow?” inquired Peter when the hand-clapping had stopped.
“His trumpet, of course, silly!” answered Betty for Uncle Henry.
Just then the children heard a toot from an automobile horn that they all recognized, and the Society of Star-Gazers raced with Uncle Henry back up to “Seven Oaks Cottage.”
“Sister” and “the Children’s Father” had come back from their trip and had surprised everybody.
The summer sessions of the Society were over.
THE “SOCIETY” LEARNS WHY ORION NEEDS A CLUB TO KEEP FRISKY TAURUS IN ORDER—AND WHY WE SAY “BY JIMINI!” WHEN WE GET EXCITED
Uncle Henrycame, as he had promised, to spend his Christmas holidays with “Sister,” “the Children’s Father,” Peter, Paul and Betty, in their city apartment.
The children’s hope for fair weather in Christmas week was not disappointed either. The days were snowy and sunny and the nights frosty and clear.
Only one thing had worried the “Society of Star-Gazers”—what was to take the place of the smooth sand of the beach when Uncle Henry should begin to point out the sky people that were visible in the winter sky? There were pebbles, it was true, on the flat roof of the apartment house, but there was no sand.
The children were certain, however, that Uncle Henry would find a way, as he always did, and sure enough, when he arrived he brought, as one of his Christmas gifts to the children, a wonderful blackboard, an easel to stand it upon, and plenty of white chalk.
After dinner on the first night of Uncle Henry’s visit, the Society of Star-Gazers was bundled up in warm coats and mufflers and he led the way to theroof, carrying the blackboard and his pocket electric flashlight.
Far above the lights of the city arched the great, blue-black bowl of the sky, filled with the sparkling patterns of stars that the children had learned to know as steadfast, unchanging friends.
“Uncle Henry,” said Betty, “you’ve told us about enough animals to really fill a Noah’s ark, but we’ve never heard anything about Noah himself. Isn’t there any Mr. Noah in the sky?”
“Well, Betty,” said Uncle Henry, “There isn’t any constellation that’s named for Noah, but he was a great hunter, and since there is a great hunter in the sky, we can call him Noah if we want to, even if his last name isOrion.”
“Noah O’Ryan!” laughed Paul. “I know a boy named Michael O’Ryan.”
“It’s not the same spelling,” said Uncle Henry, as he turned the flashlight on the blackboard while he wrote the word upon it, and underneath, made three large chalk dots, like this:
Orion
“Find those three stars,” said Uncle Henry, “and you will have thebelt of Orion. It ought not to be hard to find them, for there are no other stars likethem anywhere in the whole sky. Those three stars have always attracted a lot of attention from people in all times and countries. In the Bible Job calls them ‘the bands of Orion’; the Arabs called them ‘the Golden Nuts’; the fierce Masai Tribe in Africa call them ‘the three old men’; the ancient Chinese named Orion ‘Tsan,’ which means ‘three’; and to the Eskimos these three stars appear to be the three steps that a Starland Eskimo cuts in a snowbank when he wants to climb to the top of it.”
The children soon foundOrion’sbelt about a third of the way up the southeastern sky.
“Now,” said Uncle Henry, “see who can find his shoulders first. Here is a piece of chalk for each of you. Put the shoulders in as soon as you see them.”
Orion’s shoulders
Paul foundOrion’sright shoulder, and Betty his left, and made large chalk dots to show how bright and beautiful the stars that mark the shoulders are.
“Oh, I see his feet!” exclaimed Betty delightedly.
“Put them in then,” said Uncle Henry.
ThenOrionlooked like this on the blackboard:
“I’ll tell you this much more,” said Uncle Henry, “and then you must finishOrionby yourselves. He has a great club, raised, ready to strike, in his right hand, and he holds a lion’s skin on his left arm, as a shield.”
“What’s he going to hit at?” inquired Peter, with his boy’s joy in battle uppermost.
“AtTaurus, the wild bull,” said Uncle Henry. “You can see thatTaurusis very fierce, and would enjoy nothing better than to chase the twin star boys round and round the sky. He might not really want to hurt the boys, whose names areCastorandPollux, butTaurus’ horns are very sharp and he doesn’t know how to play gently, so it keepsOrionpretty busy getting between him andGeminiand threatening the bull with his club.”
“What’s ‘jimini,’ Uncle Hen?” said Paul. “Sounds like our swear word.”
“Itisthe origin of it,” said Uncle Henry. “The ancient Romans used to swear ‘byGemini,’ and it has slowly been changed into your ‘jimini.’Geminiis the Latin word that means ‘twins.’ We’ll find them after we finish upOrionandTaurus, and then you’ll see just howOrionkeeps protecting them from the bull.”
“Hurry up, Uncle Hen!” urged Peter. “I’m dreadful excited!”
Uncle Henry did, and as a resultOrionlooked like this:
Orion looked like this
“Ooh! he’s got a sword, too!” cried Paul, as Uncle Henry added the three tiny stars belowOrion’sbelt, and drew the outline around them.
“Why didn’t he use the sword onTaurus?”asked Peter.
“Because he knewTauruswas only playing in his rough way,” Uncle Henry replied.
“Well, we’ve heard a lot about that bull,” said Betty. “Let’s find him right away.”
Uncle Henry said nothing, but took the chalk from Betty and drew a light line fromOrion’sright foot to his left shoulder, and continued it upward about the same distance. (20)
“There,” he said, “that point is just between the bull’s horns and over his right eye. The right eye ofTaurusis a very bright star calledAldebaran. Anybody see it?”
“Oh, I do!” said Paul. “What, hasn’tTaurusany left eye, Uncle Hen?”
“He has,” said Uncle Henry, “but he has it closed just now. He’s winking it atOrionas much as to say, ‘Oh, I act fierce, but I wouldn’t hurt those twins after all. I’m just playing.’ Go ahead and put in the stars for the bull’s head and horns as fast as you find them, youngsters.”
The children did, and when Uncle Henry had showed them the fore legs and shoulder, which contains the beautiful little group of faint stars called thePleiades,Tauruslooked like this:
Taurus
“Now we want the twins!” cried Betty.
“All right,” said Uncle Henry, “follow a line straight up the bull’s left horn and a little more than the length of the horn beyond its tip and you will reachCastor, the head of the fainter twin.” (21)
Peter and Paul began to show great interest, because they were twins themselves. They demanded that each be allowed to select one of the sky children and finish him completely, without Uncle Henry’s assistance.
Castor and Pollux
Paul, having first choice because he was twenty minutes younger than Peter, selectedPollux, and Peter had to be contented with the less brightCastor.
It was not a difficult task for either of the boys, after finding the twin starCastor, for the head ofPolluxis quite close beside it and the bodies of both star children stand side by side, with the feet just aboveOrion’suplifted club.
WhenGemini, the twins, were finished, the blackboard looked like this, and since the children’s fingers were so stiff with the cold that they could hardly hold the chalk, Uncle Henry moved that the Society of Star-Gazers adjourn until the next evening.
IN WHICH THE DOGS OF ORION AND GEMINI FOLLOW THEIR MASTERS, PEGASUS ESCAPES AS USUAL, AND ANDROMEDA GETS A NICE SOFT BED OF HAY IN PLACE OF HER HARD OLD ROCK
“Uncle Hen,” said Peter, when the Society was assembled round the blackboard, in overcoats and mittens, on the following night, “what is that very bright star that is down behindOrion?It looks sort of important to me.”
“Right you are, Pete,” answered Uncle Henry, looking where the boy pointed, “itisimportant. It is the starSirius, the brightest star in the whole sky. We’ll begin with it and findOrion’sdog, orCanis Major, which is Latin for ‘bigger dog.’”
“That’s great!” exclaimed Paul, “you told us last Summer that we’d find him this Christmas-time.”
“So I did,” agreed Uncle Henry. “Well, you can always findOrion’sdog by drawing a line throughOrion’sbelt and extending it behind him until it meetsSirius. (22) You can’t miss it because it’s so bright. Everybody see it?”
Everybody did.
“Now,” went on Uncle Henry, “extend the line that came fromOrion’sbelt, curving it slightly downward after it passes throughSirius, and you will have the dog’s backbone. Put in the chalkdots as we find the stars, Pete. Now draw lines upward and downward fromSirius, at right angles to the backbone line and you will have the dog’s forelegs and ears. At a point on the backbone about twice the length of the foreleg fromSirius, you will find another fairly bright star, and below it a little way another star. Connect these two and keep on with the line, at right angles to the backbone, and you will find one hind foot. The other is not far in front of it. Yes, that’s right, Betty, there’s a star in the tip of his tail, too. And the three stars nearSiriusmakeCanis Major’snose.”
The children soon finished the skeleton and Uncle Henry took the chalk and put the flesh upon it. Then the dog ofOrionlooked like this:
The dog of Orion
“He’s a faithful old fellow, isn’t he?” said Betty, “to always follow Mr.Orionaround like that?”
“I’m not always sure,” said Uncle Henry,“whether the dog ofOrionwould always be so faithful if it wasn’t for the rabbit that is always just ahead of him, almost underOrion’sfeet.”
“Oh, show us the rabbit!” cried Betty. Her father had promised her that when they all went to live in a house in the country, she should have a pair of them for her very own.
“All right, Betty,” said Uncle Henry. “You can findLepus, the rabbit, yourself. The three rather faint stars just belowOrion’sright foot make the curve of his back. Join them together with a curved line and extend it forward and downward until it passes through two brighter stars. The lowest of these is in the fore-shoulder of the rabbit. Now draw lines backward from both of these brighter stars, at about right angles to the line that joins them, and you will find the rabbit’s hind hip and hind foot. He is lying down for a moment to rest. You see he’s been galloping away fromCanis Majorfor such a long time that he is tired.”
“Poor little rabbit!” cried Betty, and her little face looked so pitiful in the light of the electric torch that Uncle Henry hastened to reassure her by saying that the big dog had never yet caught the rabbit, and by the very nature of things never could. Then she took heart to go on putting in the stars.
“Now,” said Uncle Henry, “you can find the star in the rabbit’s eye by drawing a line forward from the upper one of the brighter stars, and the star in his fore-foot by drawing another forward and downward from his fore-shoulder. That finishes his skeleton, all except his ears. They are made byfinding four faint stars just underOrion’sleft foot, and using two of them in each ear.”
“Now can I draw his outline in, too?” asked Betty. “I want to make every bit of him myself.”
“Of course you can!” exclaimed Uncle Henry indulgently.
“You’ve got to let me make all of the horse, then, when we come to him!” exclaimed Peter.
“In just a little while, Pete,” said Uncle Henry, “we’re making the rabbit now.”
“All right,” agreed Peter.
Betty had looked longingly at rabbits in pet stores so often that she really did very well at drawing the outline of the sky-rabbit.
We leave it to you to better it. You can’t—unless you love rabbits more than she did.
The rabbit
Betty’s brothers were quite astonished, and pleased the little girl immensely by clapping their hands when the rabbit was finished.
“Now let me do the horse!” demanded Peter.
“What’ll be left for me to do?” inquired Paul wistfully, “if you let Pete do the horse?”
“That’ll be all right, Paul,” reassured Uncle Henry, “the sky horse is very large, but we’ll give you two smaller animals to do yourself to make up for him—Aries, the ram, andCanis Minor, the smaller dog.”
“Fine,” agreed Paul. “I know all ’bout rams.”
The children laughed gleefully. Paul had been butted over once by a ram when they were on a summer visit to their grandfather’s farm.
“Well, Pete,” said Uncle Henry briskly, “you’ll findPegasus, the horse, grazing clear on the other side of the star field. Somebody built a box stall for him over there, but he’s so big and strong that he doesn’t stay in it except when he feels like it. He’s all the time leaping the fence and escaping. When you find him, you’ll see that he’s doing that very thing now. In fact, you’ll catch him right in the act!”
“Oh, let’s hurry then!” said Peter, “he might be out before we see him do it!”
“Everybody find the big dipper,” directed Uncle Henry. “You remember how we found the pole star in the tip of the little bear’s tail by drawing a line up through the ‘pointer stars’ of the dipper’s bowl, on the side away from the handle? Well, do that again now, and follow the line through the pole star,passing behindCassiopeiain her chair, and continuing until your line passes through two fairly bright stars quite a distance apart. (23) A line connecting these stars marks the top edge ofPegasus’ box stall, which is called ‘the square ofPegasus.’”
“Cassiopeiais about halfway between the pole star andPegasus. A line drawn from the pole star through the back ofCassiopeia’schair will reach the two stars that form the lower corners ofPegasus’ box stall.” (24)
“Oh, I see the square now,” said Peter.
“Me, too,” said Paul.
“It’s very big, isn’t it?” said Betty.
“Yes,” agreed Uncle Henry, “andPegasusis big, too. He is upside down just now, with his head just above the western horizon. His nose points northward towardDelphinusand his neck curves up from the side of the box stall that’s away from the pole star. His fore feet curve up from the side of the square that is toward the pole star, and both feet point toward the swan.”
“I see him now,” cried Peter, and began putting in the chalk dots and lines for the framework of the box stall and the skeleton ofPegasus’ head and forelegs, which are all of him that can be seen. As Uncle Henry said,Pegasusis just in the act of jumping out of his stall.
When Peter had finished drawingPegasus, the horse of poets looked like this. Uncle Henry put in the arrows pointing from the pole star, and the skeletons ofDelphinusand the swan.
The arrows
“It seems to me,” observed Paul sagely, “thatPegasus’ box stall is a lot too small for him.”
“That’s why he is all the time jumping out and running away,” explained Uncle Henry. “I told you that we should catch him in the act. He’s always at it.”
“Pete’s had his turn; now I want to find the ram and the little dog,” said Paul.
“If you’ll wait just a little longer,” said Uncle Henry, “I’d like to show Betty the last of the sky ladies, because she’s right close toPegasus.”
Paul’s face fell a little, but he said, “Ladies first, of course,” as any gentleman would.
“I said she was a lady,” said Uncle Henry, “but I’m not so sure that she is acting like one. In fact, she is in an attitude that few ladies would like to be seen in, at least not in the plain view of everybody who looks at the sky.”
“What’s she doing, Uncle Henry?” inquired Betty, in a tone that said, “I guess it can’t be anything soverybad.”
Betty was herself fond of climbing trees, in spite of motherly disapproval of such tomboy activities.
“She’s lying flat on her back, with her arms and legs sprawled out and her head resting against the corner ofPegasus’ box stall. I should think it might be very uncomfortable for her, unless she is lying on a pile of hay, forAndromedahas been there a very long time in the same position. The ancient Greeks said thatAndromedawas chained to arock. Let’s not have her that way; it would be so disagreeable.”
“She’s probably asleep and doesn’t notice, but we’ll give her the hay,” said Betty. “There’s nobody to tell her not to lie down where she likes. How do we find her, Uncle Henry?”
“First look for her head,” said Uncle Henry. “It is the same star we found forming the lower corner ofPegasus’ square on the side toward the pole star.Andromeda’sfeet are just below the W-shapedCassiopeia. A line drawn from the swan’s beak through his tail, and extended across the sky, will reach the stars in the feet. (25) Another line drawn diagonally across the square ofPegasustoAndromeda’shead and extended will pass along her body, and farther on, her left foot will be seen just above the line. You see her now, don’t you, Betty?”
“Yes,” said Betty, “and I think I see her arms.”
“All right, draw her in,” Uncle Henry encouraged.
Betty did, but didn’t think she could draw well enough to outline the sleeping girl, so Uncle Henry did that. ThenAndromedalooked like this:
Andromeda
Betty added a few lines to show thatAndromedawas lying on a pile of hay, instead of being chained to that hard rock the Greeks insisted upon.
“What is that fuzzy little star just to her right, about at her hip?” asked Paul.
“I’m glad you noticed that,” said Uncle Henry. “The astronomers who lived ever so long ago, long before the birth of Christ Jesus, noticed that it looked ‘fuzzy,’ just as you have, and called it ‘the little cloud.’ It is now called ‘The Great Nebula inAndromeda.’ If you looked at it through a telescope you would see that it is not one star, but a great many. Some of them, as astronomers who live now tell us, are as large as our sun.”
“Ooh, how wonderful!” said Betty softly, and the boys’ faces showed that they thought so, too.
“Some night,” promised Uncle Henry, “we’ll bring up a little telescope and look at ‘the little cloud’ again. It is a fine sight.”
“Now,” said Paul after a moment, “please can I find the ram and the little dog?”
“Certainly,” said Uncle Henry. “Just asCanis Major, the bigger dog, followsOrionand belongs to him, soCanis Minor, the littler dog, follows and belongs to the star children, the twins namedGemini.”
“Ooh!” exclaimed Betty, “just like ‘Rags’ belongs to Peter and Paul! We’ll call the little dog ‘Rags’ when Paul finds him.”
“Fine!” laughed Uncle Henry, “but I warn you that he won’t come when you call him as well as the real live ‘Rags’ answers to his name.”
“Where do I start?” inquired Paul, anxious to have his chance to draw.
“At the feet of the twins,” directed Uncle Henry. “Draw a line through their feet and extend it away from the feet ofPollux, in the direction away fromTaurus, the bull. (26) At a point about as far away from the foot ofPolluxas the height of the twins you will find a bright star, and between it and the foot ofPolluxa fainter one. Draw a line to connect them, and you have the little dog’s backbone. You can fill in the rest of him any way you like, for those are the only two stars he has in him. I’ll tell you one thing, though. The brighter star is at the little dog’s tail instead of his head. The opposite was the case withOrion’sdog.”
The children found the two stars very easily and Paul put down dots of the right size to represent them. Then he drew the outline of the little sky dog, making him an Airedale, as you can see, so that he might be the same as his beloved flesh and blood name-sake “Rags.”
The dog
“Now that we’ve found the two dogs, that makes it easy to findCancerthe Crab,” said Uncle Henry.“Just draw a line fromSirius, in the Big Dog, through the Little Dog, and extend it almost as far again. (27) That’s right. Now what do you see?”
The children searched the sky for some time, and Betty finally said, “Sort of a sprawly bunch of six or eight rather faint stars.”
“Make little chalk-dots for them, then, Betty, and we’ll try our best to make them look like a crab.”
This shows howCancerthe crab looked when he was finished on the blackboard, and how he crawls in the sky away fromCanis MajorandGemini, the twin boys. Perhaps he has learned by experience to leave boys and dogs as far behind as possible.
Cancer
“Now let’s find the ram!” said Paul. “I want to draw him.”
“The ram,” said Uncle Henry, “is very small, and is made of only three stars. A line drawn from the top corner ofPegasus’ box stall, on the side next the pole, going straight down the side, and extended below it one and a half times the height of the stall, will point to the ram. (28) You can also locateAries, the Ram, by drawing a line from the star in the swan’s tail, across the stars inAndromeda’ships, and beyond them a little more than the distance from her head to her hips. Don’t mistake a little triangle of stars that you will see just belowAndromeda’sleft leg for the three stars ofAries.Ariesis a triangle, also, but it hastwofairly bright stars, while the triangle has onlyone. Do you all seeAries, the Ram?”
The children had all found it after a few moments, as well as the triangle underAndromeda’sfeet. When Paul had made the chalk dots and lines forAries’ skeleton, Uncle Henry drew the outline around them and the ram looked like this. You will see that in order to showAriesright side up, the blackboard had to be turned so thatAndromedawas upside down.
“While we are in the neighborhood ofPegasusandAndromedaandAriesthe Ram we may as well find the two fishes. One of them, called theNorthern Fish, lies just about halfway betweenAndromeda’sbody andAries—and the other, called theWestern Fish, lies just back ofPegasus’ box stall, quite close to the water jar ofAquarius. (29)
Find the fishes
“The two fishes are tied together by their tails. The cord or ribbon runs eastward from the tail of theWestern Fish, running about parallel to the side ofPegasus’ stall, and then makes a sharp angle, coming back towardAndromeda, where it is fastened to theNorthern Fish’stail.”
WhenPisces, or “The Fishes” were found and drawn with chalk they were in this relation toPegasus,Andromeda,Aries, andAquarius’ Jar.
Pisces
“While I think of it,” said Uncle Henry, “I want to tell you that sometimes you may find a very bright star in a constellation where it doesn’t seem to belong. If you watch it for a few nights you will see that it moves. It isn’t a star at all, but aplanetor “wanderer.” Sometime I’ll show you how to know all the planets by sight and name. You will never see them except in the zodiac constellations, so they need not confuse you. And now I think all of us had better go downstairs and get warm before we go to bed. Besides, we want to leave a little to do to-morrow night, and there are only two constellations left now.”
“Only two?” cried the children in disappointment.
“Only two that we can see well,” assured Uncle Henry.
“Well,” said Peter, “I guess we’d better have the Society adjourn. I move we adjourn.”
“Second the motion,” said Paul, with true parliamentary solemnity.
“Carried,” murmured Betty, who was beginning to get sleepy in spite of herself.
THE SKY CLOUDED OVER, BUT PETER FOUND THE STAR PEOPLE HIDING IN THE ALMANAC—PAUL FOUND HIS HEAD WAS THE WORLD—AND THE “SOCIETY” FOUND OUT ABOUT THE SWASTIKA AND THE ZODIAC, AND HOW YOU TELL WHEN A DIPPER IS A PLOUGH AND WHEN IT’S A WAGON
Nextevening Peter and Paul carried the blackboard to the roof after supper, but soon returned in disappointment. The sky had all clouded over! The evening’s session of the “Society of Star-Gazers” was spoiled. Its members stood in a circle about Uncle Henry and looked hopefully at him. Never yet had he failed to make good in an emergency.
“Well, it can’t be helped,” said Uncle Henry cheerfully. “We’ll just have to bring Starland down here into our playroom for this evening. Suppose you get me—let’s see—about a dozen sheets of paper from a big scratch pad, some of Betty’s colored crayons—they had better be the dark-colored ones—and a good-sized sheet of stiff cardboard or Bristol board. Yes, and some pins and an Almanac. Betty’ll get the colored pencils, Paul the cardboard, and Peter the sheets of paper and the pins. I’ll borrow the Almanac from Katy. She has one in the kitchen.”
The children scattered for the materials and UncleHenry took the shade off the electric lamp that stood on the playroom table.
When everybody was back in the playroom with the things needed the Society gathered around Uncle Henry and asked,
“Where do we go from here, Uncle Hen?”
“Out into Starland,” said Uncle Henry, spreading out his arms wide. “This room is the universe. This lamp with the shade off is the sun. Imagine that the pictures on the walls are groups of stars, the constellations, the star-people we have been finding in the sky right along. Imagine that there are pictures on the ceiling, too, and on the floor. Lots of them, all over the six sides of this square room.
“Now Paul, you have a nice round head and have just had a hair-cut. Your head can be the earth. Just walk around the table once or twice until we get used to thinking about your head as the world. It seems rather small at first. That’s right. Now you’re going around the sun the way the earth does, from right to left, just opposite to the way the clock-hands go. You go once around the sun every year.”
“The earth of course spins on its axis, too, just like a top, while it is circling round the sun. It turns round completely every twenty-four hours, from West to East. Paul, see if you can spin like a top while you are going round the lamp. Spin from right to left, just opposite to the way the clock-hands go.”
Paul did his best to spin and walk at the same time, and Uncle Henry showed Peter and Betty that the side of Paul’s head that was toward the lamp wasalways bright, while the other side was always in shadow. As Paul turned on his axis from right to left his face became lighted, then the right side of his head, then its back, then the left side, and so on, round and round.
Part of the time Paul was facing a picture on one wall and the next minute his back was toward that picture and he was looking at another picture on the opposite wall, across the lamp.
These two drawings show how Paul faced the two pictures one after the other.
Night on Paul’s Face
Day on Paul’s Face
“Now tell me,” commanded Uncle Henry, “which picture you see the plainest—is it the one you see when your back is to the lamp—or is it the one you see when you face the lamp, and look across it toward the picture on the wall beyond?”
“The lamp is so bright without a shade that it blinds me when I try to see the picture beyond it,” said Paul.
“Oh, I see! I see!” said Betty, beginning to hop up and down. “Can I tell, Uncle Henry?”
“Surely,” laughed Uncle Henry, “what do you see?”
“When Paul faces the picture with his back to the lamp,” said Betty, “it’s night on his face, and day on the back of his head! Is that right?”
“Yes, go on,” encouraged Uncle Henry.
“And so he can see that picture better, ’cause the lamplight isn’t in his eyes. But when he faces the lamp and looks across it, then it’s day in his face, and night on the back of his head, and he can’t see the picture beyond the lamp very well, ’cause the sun-lamp shines in his eyes.”
“So that’s why we can only see the stars at night!” said Peter.
“Yes, that’s why the moon and the stars come out only when it gets dark,” said Uncle Henry. “You see the earth turns round and carries us to its dark side, the side that is away from the sun. We say ‘The sun has set.’ Then when the sun glare is gone from our eyes we can see the sky-pictures, just as Paul sees one picture better with his back to the lamp than he does the other when he has to look through the lamp-light toward it.”
“And the stars are in the sky all day long, whether we see them or not?” asked Paul.
“Certainly,” said Uncle Henry. “If you could look up at the sky from the bottom of a very deep well, or a tall chimney, so that the sun-light was kept out of your eyes, you could see the stars shining in the daytime. There is a long deep tunnel in the great pyramid of Egypt that goes up and out fromthe centre of its base toward its north side at just the right angle so that the ancient Egyptians could always see the pole star through it—no matter whether it was night or daytime. You see the pole star never rises or sets, because it is always right over the end of the axis that the earth spins on.”
This picture shows how the tunnel in the great pyramid always pointed to the north star because the tunnel is always parallel to the axis the earth spins on.
The tunnel is always parallel
When the pyramid was built, the star in the tip of the little bear’s tail was not the pole star, as it is now. At that time the star that was nearest the pole was one of those in the dragon. Since the pole of the earth goes round in a complete circle among the stars every 25,000 years, the star inDracowill some time be the pole-star again—in, say 20,000 more years!
Peter had picked up the Almanac that Uncle Henry had borrowed from Katy and suddenly cried,
“Oh, Uncle Henry, the Almanac has a lot of the Star People in it. It calls them ‘The Signs of the Zodiac.’ What’s the Zodiac, Uncle Hen?”
“We are going to find out right away, Pete,” said Uncle Henry, “but first we must draw pictures of the twelve star folks that are the Zodiac signs. That means three drawings apiece. Pull up your chairs to the table and we’ll draw on the sheets of scratch paper with Betty’s colored pencils. Paul, you do theVirgo,Leo, andCancerthe Crab; Peter will drawGeminithe Twins,Taurusthe Bull, andAriesthe Ram; Betty will do the Fishes, calledPiscesin Latin,Aquariusthe Water Carrier, andCapricornusthe Goat; while I will drawSagittariusthe Archer,Scorpio, andLibrathe Balance. All old friends of ours.”
“We’ll put the Almanac here in the middle of the table where we can all see it while we copy the ‘signs,’ one on each sheet of paper.”
Everybody was very busy indeed for about half an hour. At the end of that time the twelve rough drawings were done and pinned up at equal distances apart around the walls of the playroom, three on each of the four walls. They were arranged around the room in the same order in which Uncle Henry had assigned them. The room then looked like this, though of course you see only three walls in a picture. You must imagine how the fourth wall looked.