Part 14

"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.

FIRST WINTER EVENING

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 Henry came, 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 the roof, 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 is Orion."

"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:

"Find those three stars," said Uncle Henry, "and you will have the belt of Orion. It ought not to be hard to find them, for there are no other stars like them 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 found Orion's belt 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."

Paul found Orion's right 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.

Then Orion looked like this on the blackboard:

"I'll tell you this much more," said Uncle Henry, "and then you must finish Orion by 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.

"At Taurus, the wild bull," said Uncle Henry. "You can see that Taurus is 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 are Castor and Pollux, but Taurus' horns are very sharp and he doesn't know how to play gently, so it keeps Orion pretty busy getting between him and Gemini and threatening the bull with his club."

"What's 'jimini,' Uncle Hen?" said Paul. "Sounds like our swear word."