Part 16

"I'm not always sure," said Uncle Henry, "whether the dog of Orion would always be so faithful if it wasn't for the rabbit that is always just ahead of him, almost under Orion's feet."

"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 find Lepus, the rabbit, yourself. The three rather faint stars just below Orion's right 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 from Canis Major for 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 by finding four faint stars just under Orion's left 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.

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, and Canis 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 find Pegasus, 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 behind Cassiopeia in 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 of Pegasus' box stall, which is called 'the square of Pegasus.'"

"Cassiopeia is about halfway between the pole star and Pegasus. A line drawn from the pole star through the back of Cassiopeia's chair will reach the two stars that form the lower corners of Pegasus' 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, "and Pegasus is big, too. He is upside down just now, with his head just above the western horizon. His nose points northward toward Delphinus and 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 of Pegasus' head and forelegs, which are all of him that can be seen. As Uncle Henry said, Pegasus is just in the act of jumping out of his stall.

When Peter had finished drawing Pegasus, the horse of poets looked like this. Uncle Henry put in the arrows pointing from the pole star, and the skeletons of Delphinus and the swan.