Part 18

"Make little chalk-dots for them, then, Betty, and we'll try our best to make them look like a crab."

This shows how Cancer the crab looked when he was finished on the blackboard, and how he crawls in the sky away from Canis Major and Gemini, the twin boys. Perhaps he has learned by experience to leave boys and dogs as far behind as possible.

"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 of Pegasus' 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 locate Aries, the Ram, by drawing a line from the star in the swan's tail, across the stars in Andromeda's hips, 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 below Andromeda's left leg for the three stars of Aries. Aries is a triangle, also, but it has two fairly bright stars, while the triangle has only one. Do you all see Aries, the Ram?"

The children had all found it after a few moments, as well as the triangle under Andromeda's feet. When Paul had made the chalk dots and lines for Aries' skeleton, Uncle Henry drew the outline around them and the ram looked like this. You will see that in order to show Aries right side up, the blackboard had to be turned so that Andromeda was upside down.

"While we are in the neighborhood of Pegasus and Andromeda and Aries the Ram we may as well find the two fishes. One of them, called the Northern Fish, lies just about halfway between Andromeda's body and Aries--and the other, called the Western Fish, lies just back of Pegasus' box stall, quite close to the water jar of Aquarius. (29)

"The two fishes are tied together by their tails. The cord or ribbon runs eastward from the tail of the Western Fish, running about parallel to the side of Pegasus' stall, and then makes a sharp angle, coming back toward Andromeda, where it is fastened to the Northern Fish's tail."

When Pisces, or "The Fishes" were found and drawn with chalk they were in this relation to Pegasus, Andromeda, Aries, and Aquarius' Jar.

"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 a planet or "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.

THIRD WINTER EVENING

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

Next evening 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 Uncle Henry 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 was always 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.

"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?"