Part 12

"How would football be on Mars?" asked Harry.

"Very unlike football here, dear. A good kick would send the ball much farther than here."

"Is Mars very far away?" asked Nellie. "If we could go there in a train, would it take us ever so long going?"

"About sixty years," said Mary, laughing, "if the train went a mile a minute. If you tried to walk it, going four miles an hour and ten hours a day, it would take you more than two thousand years to get there. So, I don't think we can take that trip, little girl, can we? But let us call on the next-door neighbor or neighbors to Mars, for there are about four hundred and fifty of them."

STORY OF THE BABY PLANETS.

"Four hundred and fifty little worlds?" asked Harry.

"Where can there be room for them all, and don't they knock against each other in the sky?"

"No, there is plenty of room for them up there. Besides, they are so small, some of them being only ten miles wide."

"Why, Uncle Robert walked ten miles the other day," said Harry; "he could walk all around those little worlds. And if they are so little, I suppose he would weigh scarcely anything at all if he lived on one of them. I should think he would be almost like the giant with the seven-league boots. Don't you remember, Nellie, you were reading about him the other day. Poor little Jack the Giant Killer would not have much chance there, but perhaps he could fly if he weighed so little. And how would football be on these little worlds?"

"You might give the ball such a kick that it would leave the planet altogether and circle around the sun as a planet on its own account."

How Harry and Nellie laughed at the idea of a football circling around the sun as a planet!

"And is this really true?" inquired Harry. "Why, this is better than any fairy story I ever heard. Now, tell me some more. Don't you think we might be able to fly on these tiny worlds?"

"If you could get someone to make you a pair of wings up there, it would be quite easy to fly. Our bodies would only weigh a few pounds, so we ought to be able to flap a pair of wings strong enough to keep us flying. That is, if the air around these little worlds is as dense as ours."

"Don't I wish I lived there, then," said Harry regretfully, "because it would not matter about my being lame. And I could put on my wings whenever I wanted to see you, Nellie, and fly across the park, and way, way up into the sky, and----"

"Oh, don't! Harry," said Nellie, throwing her doll on the ground and catching hold of her cousin in dismay; "if you go you must take me with you too. And poor little dollie," she continued, suddenly remembering her precious charge, "and Cousin Mary and Uncle Robert and Aunt Agnes and everybody in the world. What would we do if you flew away from us?"

"But I can't," said Harry, laughing at her dismay; "and it's just like a little girl to think I would go and leave her all alone. No, we'll all go some day, won't we?" he continued, turning to his sister Mary; "and we'll be with the angels--and have wings. You and Nellie and I--why, we will all fly, and I shall forget I ever was lame on planet earth then."

"And will father have wings, too?" asked Nellie curiously. "He will want a very big pair, something like the big eagle's down at the aquarium."

"Will he, you little rogue?" exclaimed the loud, good-natured voice of her father, as he appeared on the scene. "So this is where you are, and I have been looking for you all over the house and grounds."

"I told nurse I would be back in a minute," she replied.

"A minute!" said her father, laughing heartily; "why, you have been here nearly an hour. So you want your father to have wings, do you, you little rogue! Wait till I show you how you would fly if you had wings." The next moment he put her up on his shoulder, dollie and all, and ran with her across the meadow at full speed, while she laughed merrily and clapped her hands with delight.

"So the party is broken up," said Harry's nurse, who came to look after her charge.

"Yes; one of the audience has flown," said Harry, laughing.

"And I must fly, too," said Mary, as she kissed Harry lovingly. "And I shall tell you about the rest of Giant Sun's family to-morrow. Good-by."

STORY OF JUPITER AND HIS MOONS.

It was several days before Mary could see Harry again and tell him "sky-stories," as he called them, for he had been suffering much pain. Even her gentle voice irritated him, and perfect quiet was ordered by the doctor until the little sufferer was better. At last he was able to enjoy the sunlight and the flowers and the song of the birds again, and one bright morning he was all ready, as he told his sister, to take another trip to Starland. As Mary arranged the pillows on the couch for him, and a large sunshade, so that the glare of sunlight would not hurt his eyes, he caught hold of her hand and, pressing it lovingly, he said:

"Darling, what should I do without you? You are so good to me."

"How can I help it, little sweetheart!" said Mary, as she turned her head aside to keep him from seeing the tears that would come to her eyes; "how can I help it, when I love you so dearly. Besides, you are my own dear little brother, and you don't know how I missed you all last week."

"Did you really, sister? And I was dreaming away all day long about the wonderful stories you have been telling me. I played football on Mars, and had beautiful wings when I lived on the baby planets, and flew from one to another, and now I want to know something about the giant planets. You said they lived next door to the little tiny planets."