Stories of Starland

Part 1

Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Italic text is denoted by underscores.

STORIES OF STARLAND

BY MARY PROCTOR (Daughter of late Richard A. Proctor)

NEW YORK POTTER & PUTNAM COMPANY LONDON G. W. BACON & CO., Limited

Copyright, 1898, BY POTTER & PUTNAM COMPANY.

THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J., U. S. A.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF MY BROTHER HARRY.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork.--Psalms.

PREFACE.

This book has been a labor of love from the beginning to the end, and I have thoroughly enjoyed conversing with my little friends Harry and Nellie. Now that the book is finished, I leave it with regret.

It is impossible to give all the authorities for my legends of the stars. Many were told to me by my father when I was a little girl, or I found them among books in his library, which is now scattered far and wide. Others are from Grecian mythology, Japanese folk-lore, Hindoo legends, while some of the American Indian stories were found in musty volumes of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution.

As for the descriptive astronomy, among my authorities are Professor C. A. Young, Professor Barnard, Agnes M. Clerke, Professor R. S. Ball, Schiaparelli, Flammarion, Professor Todd, Mr. Lowell of Flagstaff, Ariz., and my father, the late Richard A. Proctor.

With the kind permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. I have been allowed to use the following selections: "Why the Stars Twinkle," by Oliver Wendell Holmes; "The Evening Star," by Longfellow; "Lady Moon," by Lord Houghton; and "The New Moon," by Mrs. Follen. The editor of St. Nicholas has kindly given me permission to include the poems "The Four Sunbeams," by M. K. B.; "Estelle's Astronomy," by Delia Hart Stone; and "Seven Little Indian Stars," by Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt. I am indebted to the editor of Child-Study Monthly for the little poem "Is It True?" by Morgan Growth. The poem on "The Solar System" is taken from the Youth's Companion, with the kind permission of the editor. The verses about "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" are so familiar to every child that my book of Stories of Starland would seem incomplete without this poem by Eugene Field. The illustration of a Part of the Milky Way is from a photograph taken by Professor Barnard at the Lick Observatory. Mr. Percival Lowell has also very kindly allowed me to make use of his excellent illustration of the Canals of Mars, taken from Todd's "New Astronomy," published by the American Book Company.

I now submit this little book to my young readers, sincerely hoping its pages may inspire them with a renewed interest in the wonders of Starland.

Mary Proctor.

New York City, June, 1898.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Light, F. W. Bourdillon, 13

THE STORY OF GIANT SUN.

Ancient Stories of the Sun--Heat of the Sun--Distance of the Sun--Size of the Sun--The Sun in the Days of Its Youth, 13-33

On the Setting Sun, Sir Walter Scott, 29

The Four Sunbeams, M. K. B., from St. Nicholas, 31

The Sun, 32

THE FAMILY OF GIANT SUN.

What Is a Planet?--Story of Planet Mercury--Story of Planet Venus, 34-45

Part 2

Estelle's Astronomy, Delia Hart Stone, 47

Venus, Milton, 47

The Evening Star, Longfellow, 48

Mercury, Baker, 48

A RAMBLE ON THE MOON.

Story of the Moon--Story of the Man in the Moon--Story of the Woman in the Moon--Story of the Toad in the Moon--Scenery on the Moon--Hindoo Legend, 49-67

The New Moon, Mrs. Follen, 65

Lady Moon, Lord Houghton, 66

A Legend, Taken from the New York Tribune, 67

THE PLANET MARS AND THE BABY PLANETS.

Story of Planet Mars--Story of the Baby Planets, 68-79

STORY OF JUPITER AND HIS MOONS.

Story of Jupiter--Jupiter as Seen through a Telescope--The Moons of Jupiter--Eclipse of Jupiter's Moons, 80-93

Jupiter, Moore, 92

A Lesson in Astronomy, Youth's Companion, 92

THE GIANT PLANETS.

The Planet Saturn--The Planet Uranus--Difference between a Planet and a Star--Discovery of Planet Neptune, 94-103

Is It True? Morgan Growth, from Child-Study Monthly, 102

COMETS AND METEORS.

Story of Comets--Story of Meteors--Story of a Shooting Star, 104-114

Starlight at Sea, Amelia B. Welby, 113

STORIES OF THE SUMMER STARS.

Legends of the Great Bear--Stories of the Great Dipper--Story of the Dragon--Stories of the Northern Crown--Story of the Lion--The Milky Way--A Swedish Legend--Legend of the Swan-- Meeting of the Star-Lovers, 116-146

The Stars and the Violets, 145

The Nights, Adelaide Proctor, 145

The Calling of the Stars, 146

STORY OF THE WINTER STARS.

Story of the Royal Family--Story of the Fishes--Story of the Pleiades--Story of the Seven Little Indian Boys--Why the Stars Twinkle--Flowers of Heaven--Number of the Stars--Distance of the Stars--What Are the Stars Made of?--Our Island Universe, 147-179

Part 3

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, Eugene Field, 177

Seven Little Indian Stars, Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt, from St. Nicholas, 178

Why the Stars Twinkle, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 179

"GOD BLESS THE STAR!"

"God Bless the Star!" 181-186

Crossing the Bar, Tennyson, 185

Ye Golden Lamps of Heaven, Doddridge, 185

STORIES OF STARLAND.

LIGHT.

Night has a thousand eyes, And the day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes, And the heart but one; Yet the light of the whole life dies When love is done.

--F. W. Bourdillon.

THE STORY OF GIANT SUN.

"Sister, come here and talk to me. I am so tired of being alone."

His sister Mary at once closed her book, and took a chair beside Harry's couch. Poor little Harry was not like other boys. He could not play and run about as they did, for he was a cripple. All the long weary days he had to lie on a couch which was placed under the shady trees during the warm summer season. He had learned to love the flowers and trees, and the bright blue sky overhead, and his sister often told him pretty stories about them. She was just thinking of telling him one now, when he said gently:

ANCIENT STORIES OF THE SUN.

"Sister, you have told me so many stories of the flowers. I wish you would tell me something about the sky. I have been looking at it for such a long time, watching the little white clouds floating across it like boats with silver sails; and then I tried to look at the bright yellow sun, but it dazzles my eyes. Won't you tell me about it, and where it goes in the evening when we cannot see it any more? Is it always ready in the morning to give us light? Is it ever late, do you think? What would we do if it forgot to come round the edge of the earth and give us light?" he continued anxiously.

"There is no fear of that," said his sister Mary, laughing at the idea. "But a long time ago people asked the very same question. In those days they thought the earth was flat, and surrounded by an ocean without end. The Hindoos supposed that the earth rested upon four elephants, and the four elephants stood on the back of an immense tortoise, which itself floated on the surface of an endless ocean. It was thought that the sun plunged into the ocean when it disappeared in the evening, and some people said they heard a hissing noise when the red-hot body went under the waves.

"But if the sun dropped into the water each evening, how did it happen that next morning it was seen again, as hot and bright as ever? The people could not tell why, so they said that during the night the gods made a new sun to be used the next day."

"That must have kept them busy," said Harry, laughing.

"The good people made up another story about the sun, so that the same one could be saved each night. Just as it was dropping into the ocean, a god named Vulcan, who had a great boat ready, caught it, and all night long he paddled with the blazing sun. Next morning he was ready at sunrise to send the sun up into the sky in the east. He threw it with so much force that it would go very high, and when it came down on the other side in the west, he stood ready to catch it again."

"But where does the sun really go to at night?" asked Harry curiously. "I should like to know."

HEAT OF THE SUN.

"We live on a big round globe called Earth," replied his sister, "and we travel round the sun, which gives the earth light and heat. The sun is like a great lamp in the sky, and when you face the lamp you see the light, but if you turn away from it you are in darkness. As the earth goes around the sun, it whirls around like a huge top; first one side and then the other is turned to the sun and gets sunlight, and so we have day and night. If the sun, or the lamp in the sky, went out and stopped shining, all the light would go out on the earth, and we would miss its heat as well.

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