{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_60081/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_60081","id":"gutenberg_60081","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60081","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Children & Young Adult Reading","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Science-Fiction & Fantasy","Constellations -- Juvenile fiction","Stars -- Juvenile fiction"],"text":"Produced by Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed\nProofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was\nproduced from images generously made available by The\nInternet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration:\n\n STAR PEOPLE AND THE JANE ELLEN\n]\n\n\n\n\n STAR PEOPLE\n\n\n BY\n\n KATHARINE FAY DEWEY\n\n\n WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY\n FRANCES B. COMSTOCK\n\n[Illustration]\n\n BOSTON AND NEW YORK\n HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY\n =The Riverside Press Cambridge=\n 1910\n\n\n\n\n COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY KATHARINE FAY DEWEY\n\n ALL RIGHTS RESERVED\n\n _Published October 1910_\n\n\n\n\n TO THREE LITTLE KATHARINES\n\n\n _Oh, Katharines three,\n Come sail with me\n Where the ship of my Fancy flies!\n We\u2019ll wander free\n Over land and sea,\n Then sail away to the skies._\n\n _If I were a star,\n So far\u2014so far\u2014\n From this Earth where the children dwell,\n My twinkliest beam\n For that ship should gleam;\n And my truest secret I\u2019d tell\n To the eyes that look\n Through fancy.\u2014No book\n Nor telescope serves so well._\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n\n I. THE PRINCESS AND THE OTHERS 1\n\n _Introduces some people in Garden and Sky.\n Meet them now if you like, or come back by and by._\n\n II. THE SAILOR\u2019S STAR 11\n\n _Tells how the Jane Ellen sailed far o\u2019er the sea;\n Found a rock, built a ladder, and pleased Little B._\n\n III. THE COMET AND THE POLE STAR 42\n\n _On the sands of the seashore you learn what befell\n A bad little Comet.\u2014Oh, it punished him well!_\n\n IV. OLD SOL\u2019S MENAGERIE 65\n\n _The cages are safe, though you can\u2019t see the bars;\n The Zodiac Circus,\u2014Performers all Stars!_\n\n V. MAJOR 80\n\n _Here comes a great Wagon. Ahoy! Who goes there?\n Did some one say, \u201cDipper\u201d? Why!\u2014\u2019tis you, Mr. Bear!_\n\n VI. THE BEE BABY 98\n\n _Were I seeking a spot that was safe for a babe, or\n To build me a cot, and would not lose my labor,\n I would not choose Xyntli, myself, for a neighbor!_\n\n VII. LADY MOON\u2019S LANTERN 127\n\n _Rise, rise, Lady Moon! Soar high,\u2014sail over!\u2014\n Where is Bee Baby now? Shall I discover?_\n\n VIII. ANDROMEDA\u2019S BIRTHDAY 133\n\n _Meteors are ripe! A touch makes them fly.\n I suspect there\u2019ll be doings to-night in the Sky._\n\n IX. A SURPRISE PARTY 149\n\n _It was all Little Bear: (though they all said they all\n knew it!)\n But for him they\u2019d have paid no attention at all to it._\n\n X. TRAVELERS\u2019 TALES 171\n\n _Tip-top o\u2019 the hill!\u2014There\u2019s the fit starting-place\n For a highflier journey through direful Space!_\n\n XI. TORQUILLON\u2019S LAIR 192\n\n _His spirit was selfish, his ways impolite.\n Hey! Ships and Star People! Ye made a brave fight!_\n\n EPILOGUE 230\n\n\n\n\n ILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n Star People and the Jane Ellen _Frontispiece_\n\n They watched with her 4\n\n Tom Green\u2019s Chanty 26\n\n Everybody watched him go up and up 30\n\n \u201cOh, dear Taffy, let _me_ take care of the Sailor\u2019s\n Star\u201d 38\n\n Draco 46\n\n A more rascally comet you wouldn\u2019t care to see 50\n\n Orion 56\n\n Orion\u2019s Dogs and Little Bear 64\n\n \u201cShall we not walk together, sir?\u201d 70\n\n Cassiopeia 76\n\n \u201cWhy, I thought you were a wagon,\u201d he said, \u201cbut where\n are your hortheth?\u201d 86\n\n Andromeda 98\n\n They thought only of their flight 116\n\n His wondering eyes looked from Lady Moon\u2019s shoulder 124\n\n The small round shadow passed on across the bright\n lantern of the moon 130\n\n Three Orions couldn\u2019t have stopped them 146\n\n Little Bear stopped by the bush 154\n\n He found Merope sitting alone 180\n\n The sisters were dancing\u2014the very prettiest and most\n twirly of the \u201cSailor\u2019s Knots\u201d 190\n\n Down the channel he came flying 210\n\n Standing lightly on the yards, high, high in the air,\n the twin brothers Castor and Pollux 216\n\n\n\n\n STAR PEOPLE\n\n\n\n\n I\n THE PRINCESS AND THE OTHERS\n\n\nSo they came to the place where the Princess was. And when they looked\ndown there were treetops\u2014\n\nBut that is not a proper beginning when nobody knows who they were or\nanything about it.\n\nThere were four of them,\u2014the Princess and three Others.\n\nWhat the Princess\u2019s name was isn\u2019t to be told, and she was not a real\nprincess. But that made no difference to the Others. She was the most\nwonderful person they knew, and everything a princess should be, and\nthey loved her loyally.\n\nThe Others were called Prudence, Pat, and the Kitten; but the true name\nof each one of them was the true name of the Princess,\u2014that isn\u2019t to be\ntold and doesn\u2019t matter.\n\nPrudence was the oldest, and very wise. (That was why she was Prudence,\nbut more often the Princess said, \u201cMiss Phyllis-y.\u201d) She had brown eyes,\nclear and steady, and short hair. There was a perky little lock on one\nside of the middle of her forehead that reminded the Princess of a\nquestion mark. She was small and looked years younger than she was, and\nthat made her funny when she was so sagacious.\n\nPat was the tallest and the most impatient. (So they called her\n\u201cPatience\u201d\u2014because she wasn\u2019t!\u2014and shortened it to Pat.) She talked with\nher eyebrows; and sometimes they would fairly frighten you if you didn\u2019t\nknow she couldn\u2019t do it! Her hair was braided and tied tight, but\nusually a good deal of it escaped and ruffled before it reached the\nbraids. She was over nine and Miss Phyllisy was not far from twelve, and\nthey considered the Kitten extremely young,\u2014which the Kitten didn\u2019t\ndeny. She was young, and she had other kitten-tricks,\u2014like coming and\nsitting on a person\u2019s knee without being invited when she wanted to, and\nother times being very independent and going her own ways; and she made\nsoft little songs for herself,\u2014that didn\u2019t begin or end any more than a\nreal kitten\u2019s,\u2014and purring sounds instead of talking when she was\npleased. But she could talk faster than countless kittens when there was\nany occasion for it.\n\n\nThat is who they were. And any one can fancy how they were frisking\nabout in the garden and out,\u2014and the nearer it grew to bedtime, the\nfarther they kept from the house; and how they trailed up the crooked\npath on the side of the hill,\u2014the Kitten following along, making a song\nfor herself,\u2014and finally came to the farthest, high, wild lookout place,\nwith a railing at the edge overlooking the dark treetops. And there they\nfound the Princess watching pale little stars coming out in the light\nsky.\n\nThe Kitten didn\u2019t come close until she was ready, and then she\nimmediately cuddled up, sleepy; but the Others went straight to the\nPrincess. She put her arm around them and they leaned against her, but\nthey didn\u2019t talk, they watched with her. And more stars came out where\nthey looked steadily, and others came where they didn\u2019t look, more than\nthey could count, all silent, to look back at them. And the Princess was\nsmiling to herself.\u2014\n\nBut that didn\u2019t suit Pat very long, it made her uneasy. First she\npuckered her eyebrows, but nobody saw her; then she sighed, but nobody\nnoticed; then she spoke,\u2014\u201cWhat _are_ you looking at?\u201d\n\nThe Princess still looked, but she squeezed with her arm. \u201cSome people I\nknow. Friends of a friend of mine.\u201d\n\nPat didn\u2019t understand, so she grew wary (that was one of her ways). She\ntwitched her shoulder, but she wouldn\u2019t be the next to speak\u2014unless it\nwere too long!\n\n\u201cWhat people, Dearie?\u201d asked Prudence, when they had waited a minute and\nthe Princess didn\u2019t speak again.\n\n\u201cMost illustrious, highly exalted. A king and a queen, a royal dragon,\nand an indispensable little bear\u2014wonderfolk,\u201d ended the Princess, as if\nthat explained it.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re looking at the stars,\u201d said Pat-who-would-n\u2019t-be-imposed-upon.\n\n\u201cStar People, Pat. Can you guess now?\u201d\n\n\u201cI think I can, Dearie. But you tell,\u201d said Prudence.\n\nThe Princess took her arm away so she could point with it, and she put\nher head down beside a dreadfully scowling little girl\u2019s, so they could\nlook along and off the end of the same finger. It pointed where five\nstars made a zigzag in the sky. She pointed to one after another.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n THEY WATCHED WITH HER\n]\n\n\u201cLook like a \u2018W,\u2019 don\u2019t they, Pat?\u2014But there\u2019s another star\u2014very\npale\u2014and another off here. Now, see\u2014tipped up\u2014so\u2014Isn\u2019t that a pretty\ngood chair? How would you like to sit there and overlook things?\u201d\n\n\u201cCassiopeia wouldn\u2019t let her,\u201d said Prudence. \u201cThat\u2019s Cassiopeia\u2019s\nChair, Pat. She doesn\u2019t allow any one to sit in it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t want to.\u201d Pat spoke in a loud whisper.\n\n\u201cThat is where you\u2019re mistaken, Miss Phyllisy,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cShe\nwouldn\u2019t mind a bit. But she is sitting there herself, this minute.\u201d\n\n\u201cReally, Princess? I didn\u2019t know that!\u201d\n\n\u201cDid you ever see her out of it?\u201d (Miss Phyllisy giggled.) \u201cThere is one\nof the stars on her most loftical head. Do you see it?\u201d\n\n\u201cWho said it was that?\u201d asked Pat. Her manner was a trifle threatening,\nbut she was ready to be friends.\n\n\u201cSaid what?\u201d\n\n\u201cCas\u2014what you called it. Why did you call it that?\u201d\n\n\u201cCassiopeia\u2019s Chair? That is what it was named long and long ago.\u201d\n\n\u201cLong as Ancients?\u201d (The Princess knew all about the Ancients,\u2014several\nkinds of them. She knew everything.)\n\n\u201cLong as that,\u201d she answered. \u201cThey\u2019re the very ones who named the Star\nPeople for us, saw the figures in the stars, and gave them the names of\ntheir own gods and heroes, animals,\u2014all sorts of queer things. Useful\nlives they led, those Star People, ever after.\u201d\n\n\u201cHow were they useful?\u201d asked Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cTo the sailors, Beloveds, most of all, or any one who wants to find his\nway where there\u2019s nothing on Earth to guide him. In the middle of the\nmost vastest ocean or the most widest plain, all they have to do is to\nlook up and see where the Star People are; then they\u2019ll know where they\nare themselves, and where to go to be somewhere else. Of course the Star\nPeople can\u2019t help any one who doesn\u2019t know them,\u201d she added.\n\n\u201cWe don\u2019t. We could be lost any time,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cYou might have been once, but not after this. There\u2019s a whole Royal\nFamily right before your eyes now: Queen Cassiopeia on her throne and\nKing Cepheus beside her and their pretty daughter, Andromeda.\u2014That is\none of Cepheus\u2019 stars\u2014and there\u2019s another.\u201d The Princess drew lines with\nher finger from the stars of the big \u201cW\u201d to the ones they wanted to\nfind. And the Others picked them out, passing from star to star like\ncrossing a brook, jumping from stone to stone. There were different\ncolors, too, to help them. The Princess saw them plainly,\u2014red stars and\nblue and yellow, and never before had the Others seen anything but all\nalike and plain shining. At first they believed it only because the\nPrincess said so; then they began to see it themselves, but it was still\ntoo light to see very well. And they found a few stars of Andromeda.\n\n\u201cThere is a beautiful young hero who belongs with them,\u201d said the\nPrincess. \u201cHe\u2019s down below the treetops now; he will come up later. He\nis Perseus,\u2014the Rescuer. He helped the Cassiopeia family out of terrible\ntrouble when they were all Earth People.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh!\u201d exclaimed Phyllisy. \u201cPerseus-and-the-Gorgon?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo less. A friend of yours, Miss Phyllisy?\u201d\n\nMiss Phyllisy nodded, and Pat twisted her eyebrow.\n\n\u201cWell,\u2014she\u2019s eleven and nine months, and I\u2019m only nine and seven\nmonths,\u201d she said, just as if she were arguing something.\n\n\u201cI only happened to, Pat,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cShe\u2019ll tell you some time; then you\u2019ll know him too,\u201d said the\nPrincess. \u201cI want to show you somebody splendid. Tip your heads up. Do\nyou see four stars that make a long diamond,\u2014three brighter and one not\nso bright at the point? That\u2019s Draco\u2019s head,\u2014the great Dragon. See his\nspiky wings lifted. His tail comes down this way. Look,\u2014a curl,\u2014so.\u201d She\nswung her finger around. \u201cIsn\u2019t he fine? Keep your eye right on him and\nI\u2019ll tell you who he is. He isn\u2019t one of your common, everyday dragons\nyou meet so often.\u2014Is your eye on him, Pat?\u201d\n\nPat tipped her head up, then she tipped it down and nodded. The Princess\nsqueezed the young Other One, who was sleepy, in the hollow of her arm,\nand began in a story-telling voice: \u201cThere was once a young man named\nJason, who had a great many adventures. One of them was when he set out\nto bring home the fleece of a ram. (A ram is a grown-up lamb, Kitten.\u201d\nThe Kitten made a funny little bleating noise, like a mother-cat; but\nshe was only partly awake.) \u201cAnd this was a golden fleece. And it hung\non a tree all-by-alone, where any one might have stolen it,\u2014ONLY, it was\nguarded by a great dragon that lay curly at the foot of the tree, and\nnever closed his eyes, watching it. And that was the very identical\nDragon you\u2019re looking at this minute.\u201d\n\n\u201cTell us what happened then, Dearie,\u2014when he didn\u2019t close his eyes,\u201d\nurged Phyllisy, after they had looked again at the Dragon.\n\n\u201cHe _did_!\u201d the Princess closed the words off\u2014snap!\u2014so they were tight\nshut,\u2014and the Others giggled. \u201cJason gave him some magic drops that put\nhim to sleep, and carried off the fleece.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat did they do to the Dragon when they found the fleece was gone?\u201d\n\n\u201cI wasn\u2019t exactly there, Phyllisy; but you may judge by this, they made\nhim a Star Person to reward him because he was a good reliable dragon\nuntil he met a Bewitchment that he couldn\u2019t help.\u2014And he\u2019s very happy\nthere in the Sky, half surrounding the indispensable Little Bear who\ncarries the Sailor\u2019s Star on the tip of his tail. He\u2019s still guarding\nsomething very precious, you see.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou haven\u2019t told us about the indispensable little bear,\u201d said\nPhyllisy.\n\n\u201cTell about little bear,\u201d the Kitten murmured.\n\n\u201cTell us,\u201d said Pat, coaxing the Princess\u2019s hand up and down.\n\nThe Princess didn\u2019t answer at once. She was looking up into the twinkly\nblue\u2014very far away\u2014as if she were forgetting the Others. At last she\nspoke: \u201cLittle Bear is a very special friend and friend\u2019s friend. I\u2019d\nrather tell you about him another time,\u2014when he isn\u2019t listening.\u201d\n\n\u201cCan he hear?\u201d Pat whispered it.\n\n\u201cSurely,\u2014and carry messages.\u201d\n\n\u201cWill he do it?\u201d\n\n\u201cHe did,\u2014brought me one and took one.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh-h,\u2014what did he say?\u201d\n\nThe Princess laid her fingers on her lips.\n\n\u201cIs it secrets?\u201d asked Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cLong secrets.\u201d Her voice smiled in the dusk. \u201cBut I\u2019ll tell you the\nWord of it,\u2014\u2018Faithful.\u2019\u201d\n\n\nThe Sky was dark and deep and crowded with stars. They sat very still\nand mysterious while a wind came out of Beyond. They could hear it\nturning back the leaves in the treetops,\u2014saying, \u201cH\u2014ss-sh\u2014\u201d as it passed\nthrough, and all the stars winked.\u2014\n\n\n\u201cWake up, Kitten!\u201d said the Princess.\n\nBut she didn\u2019t have to wake up entirely, for the Princess held her hand\ncoming back, down the rocky steps and along the paths, and her feet\nwalked themselves.\n\n\n\n\n II\n THE SAILOR\u2019S STAR\n\n\nQuite suddenly the Princess was there, at the head of the path where\nfour steps came down the terrace,\u2014all silken and wonderful and growing\nup into a rose at the top, that wasn\u2019t a rose but a hat!\n\nThe Others dropped everything and ran, and she waited until they got\nthere and hung on her arms. And they walked around her to look at it in\nthe back.\n\n\u201cWhat kind of a party was it?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cThey were married and lived happy ever after, and there were\nbridesmaids all in a row,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cSo there wasn\u2019t any more\nto _that_;\u2014and if anybody wanted me to tell them about how the Pole Star\nhappened, I should say this was the most suitable time.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt is for us, very convenient,\u201d said Miss Phyllisy. \u201cWe\u2019ll come this\nminute.\u201d\n\nThey waited while the Princess gathered up her skirt where it\ntrailed,\u2014soft outside, but fluffy under,\u2014and threw it over her arm, to\nstart fair: One, two, three, and away!\n\nThe Kitten won, because she truly ran very fast and she looked straight\nahead, but Pat wanted to see behind at the same time, to know if the\nothers were gaining.\n\nBy the Shadow Pool, they two watched the Princess with Prudence beside\nher\u2014very companionable\u2014walking the last bit of it\u2014across the little\nbridge below, then turning up the dark path on the edge of the ravine,\nwith trees arching over from the hillside. Looking out the other way\nthrough a gap in the trees, they could see\u2014like a picture in a frame\u2014the\nsteps coming down the terrace and the path curving down by the petunias,\nall in the sun, then dropping away out of sight into the trees that it\ncame out of to cross the bridge.\n\nIn here it was cool and deep shade, in tall woods on the steep hillsides\nthat opened out like a \u201cV.\u201d There were rocks with maidenhair and moss in\nthe banks behind; and in the point of the \u201cV\u201d\u2014higher than any one could\nreach\u2014a thin waterfall came over the edge of the rock, and fell a little\nway, and slid the rest into the still pool with goldfish in it, and\nothers that were the same color as shadows in water and scarcely showed\nunless they darted across. The water went on over another edge that was\nmade for it, and ran away at the bottom of the ravine,\u2014hunting for the\nsea; but the fishes lived there for always. There were seats around the\npool in convenient places where a tree or a rock made part of it and\ntwisted wood the rest. But there was one broad seat with a high twisted\nback against the rocks behind, and a long flat rock before it for a\nfootstool, that was stately for the Princess.\n\nShe pulled out long pins,\u2014curious ones, carved at the top,\u2014and the hat\nthat wasn\u2019t a rose, but grew up as if it were part of her, came off and\nleft her altogether finished without it, with coils on top.\n\nAnd because the Princess was willing, Miss Phyllisy put it on her own\nhead. The Shadow Pool was a mirror, so she could see if it looked as if\nit were growing there, and Pat looked with her. But Pat looked also at\nthe back of Miss Phyllisy\u2019s head. \u201cIt ought to be more hair\u2014done up,\u201d\nshe said. Phyllisy twisted her head to see in the pool, and she put up\nher hand and felt down her hair behind; it ended in a point in the\nmiddle of her neck,\u2014the locks crossing in from the sides,\u2014like a very\nsmall duck\u2019s tail, about an inch. The Kitten slipped her finger under\nand turned up the lock, and it curved around the finger.\n\nSo Phyllisy took the hat off and they put it carefully where it wouldn\u2019t\nfall, and \u201cwould be all right, Dearie,\u201d\u2014and they settled down in their\nmost usual places: Phyllisy, where she could look into the pool from\nacross and see the Princess upside down; Pat, in the narrow seat in the\ncrotch between two trees,\u2014but she would move to another pretty soon,\nbecause she always did,\u2014and the Kitten, sitting on her foot in the seat\nnext largest to the Princess\u2019s.\n\n\n\u201cIt is about the last, youngest Star Person of all; and how there came\nto be the Pole Star,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve told the Kitten what she didn\u2019t hear, all she could\nunderstand;\u2014so you won\u2019t have to plan about that,\u201d said Prudence.\n\n\u201cI could understand before,\u201d said the Kitten. \u201cI heard, too,\u2014myself.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, Dearie,\u201d\u2014Prudence had \u201cDearies\u201d to spare for others beside the\nPrincess,\u2014\u201cyou were asleep, and you couldn\u2019t be expected to understand\nit all; you\u2019re such a little girl\u2014under seven.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m going to tell it most particularly to you, Kitten. Now, see if you\ndon\u2019t,\u201d said the Princess.\n\nShe leaned a little forward on the stately seat, her elbow on her knee,\nand the silken folds fallen down on the broad stone. She looked for a\nlong moment, her eyes shining straight out. And then she began:\u2014\n\n\u201cOnce upon a time, so long ago that nobody can remember when, a\nbeautiful ship was sailing along under a spanking breeze with all sails\nset. The name of the ship was the Jane Ellen, and she was named for the\nCaptain\u2019s wife. At her prow was the figure of a mermaid, with long\nwaving hair; and the head of the mermaid was like the head of the\nCaptain\u2019s wife. But that was when she was young. Now she sat at home and\nknit; but to the Captain she looked just like the lovely mermaid, and he\nkept the Jane Ellen spick and span from truck to keel,\u2014the finest ship\nafloat, as she was the best of wives.\u201d\n\n(No one could tell stories as the Princess told them. The things she\ntold she knew so well, it was as if she were seeing them, and words were\nwaiting for her and came orderly, just as she needed them to make it\nplain.)\n\n\u201cNow, as the ship was sailing along on this fine starlight night, and\neverything favorable, the Captain in his cabin felt a great jolt, then a\ns-scrape, and the ship leaned away over, and everything that could slid\ndown to one side. The next minute it tilted the other way, and most of\nthem slid back again, and then the ship went on as before.\n\n\u201cThe Captain jumped up and put his head out of the cabin window and\nlooked fore and aft along the deck. He saw a man coming toward him, and\ncalled, very sharply, \u2018Mr. Morganwg!\u2019[1]\n\nFootnote 1:\n\n He called it \u201cMorgan-_ough_,\u201d but he was particular about the\n spelling.\n\n\u201cIt was the Mate of the Jane Ellen. He was young and big, and he had\ngray eyes and black hair and heavy black eyebrows that almost met over\nhis eyes, and he could look very stern, but his eyes laughed; and he\ncould sing, and if he had had time, he could have played on a harp,\nbecause he was a Welshman, and his name was Taffy. But he didn\u2019t have\ntime, because if you are mate of a ship like the Jane Ellen, you have a\ngreat deal to do, and have to be everywhere at once, to see that things\nare done as the Captain wants them.\n\n\u201c\u2018What was that?\u2019 asked the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018We struck on Porpoise Rock, sir,\u2019 said Taffy.\n\n\u201c\u2018Who\u2019s steering?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Nelson.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Well?\u2014he knew the rock was there, didn\u2019t he? It\u2019s marked on his chart\nplain enough. There\u2019s no excuse, a bright starlight night like this.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, he knew it,\u2019 said the Mate, \u2018but he says he didn\u2019t make enough\nallowance for the stars moving. He says if there were _one_ star, only,\nthat he could depend on to be in the same place every night, it would be\nall right.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Well, there isn\u2019t,\u2019 said the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018I know it,\u2019 answered the Mate. \u2018But you know yourself, it\u2019s confusing\nto steer by them.\u2019 Taffy spoke quite respectfully, but he often made\nsuggestions to the Captain when no one was listening, and the Captain\nloved him like his own son.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo they move?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d said Phyllisy. \u201cDon\u2019t you know?\u2014rise and set.\u201d\n\nPat looked at the Princess to see if that was what she meant, and she\nnodded, and went on:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018H\u2019m!\u2019 said the Captain. \u2018You go and drop anchor right now. I won\u2019t\nhave any more paint scraped off from this ship. Then you come here and\nwe\u2019ll talk it over. Something\u2019s got to be done.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Very well, sir,\u2019 said Taffy, touching his cap. And a few minutes later\na great quivering and trembling went through the ship as the anchor\nchains slid out; and then they lay quiet, rocking gently on the waves,\nand everybody went to bed except the Lookout and the Captain and the\nMate.\n\n\u201cNo one knows just what was said in the Captain\u2019s cabin, or whether he\nor Taffy made the suggestion, but this is what happened:\u2014\n\n\u201cThe next morning, just before sunrise, the Mate stepped out of his\ncabin and walked for\u2019ard. He leaned over the fo\u2019c\u2019s\u2019le hatch, which\nstood open, and called, \u2018Bos\u2019n!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Ay, ay, sir,\u2019 answered the Bos\u2019n from below. The next minute he stood\nbeside Taffy on the deck.\n\n\u201c\u2018Assemble ships!\u2019 ordered the Mate.\n\n\u201c\u2018Ay, ay, sir,\u2019 said the Bos\u2019n again. He had a whistle hanging from a\nstring around his neck that he used for a signal to the sailors, but he\ndidn\u2019t use that now. Instead he took from a pocket inside his shirt\nanother whistle. It was no larger than the first, but when he put it to\nhis lips and blew,\u2014the sound was so high and clear it seemed as if it\nmust go all around the world! And before very long,\u2014just as if it had\ngone, and was broken up on the way, and was coming back in little\npieces,\u2014from every direction came a faint, thin little answering\nwhistle.\n\n\u201cAnd then the Captain and the Mate and the second Mate and the four\nQuartermasters and the Bos\u2019n and the sailors and the cook and the cabin\nboy\u2014who were all on deck by this time\u2014saw appearing, one by one, on the\nhorizon, little specks, that as they came nearer, showed themselves to\nbe ships of all descriptions,\u2014schooners and brigs and barkentines and\nbarks and frigates and luggers and full-rigged ships. And every time one\nof the little specks appeared the Lookout would call from the masthead,\n\u2018Sail ho!\u2019 and the Captain would say, \u2018Where away?\u2019 and the Lookout\nwould answer, \u2018Two points on the weather-bow,\u2019 or wherever it happened\nto be.\n\n\u201cAll the morning long, all these different kinds of ships tacked and\njibed and went about and missed stays and luffed and beat to wind\u2019ard,\nand in all these ways drew nearer and nearer, until, just as the\nQuartermaster made it seven bells, the last one of them hove to, and the\nJane Ellen lay surrounded by fifty-two ships of every kind you ever\nsaw,\u2014but none so fine as she!\n\n\u201cThen from the peak of the Jane Ellen fluttered a string of little\nflags,\u2014red and yellow and white and green,\u2014and the little flags said to\nthe captains of the other ships, \u2018Will you please come aboard the Jane\nEllen?\u2019 Then from every ship a boat put out, and was rowed to the side\nof the Jane Ellen, where a rope-ladder was let down to the water\u2019s edge.\nHer Captain stood on the deck by the rail, with the Mate standing by,\nand shook hands with every captain as he came over the side, and said,\n\u2018I\u2019m glad to see you, sir!\u2019\n\n\u201cWhen they all had come aboard and were assembled on the hurricane deck\nthe Captain made them a speech, while the Mate went and told the cook to\n\u2018look alive with lunch, to have it ready when the \u201cOld Man\u201d gets through\nwith the powwow!\u2019\n\n\u201cThis is the Captain\u2019s speech: \u2018I suppose you wonder why I called you\ntogether? Perhaps you noticed a big mar on the Jane Ellen\u2019s bows, where\nthe good new paint is scraped off?\u2019 All the other captains nodded. \u2018That\nhappened last night,\u2019 said our Captain. \u2018We ran on Porpoise Rock; and my\nquartermaster, Nelson, said he ran a-foul of it because he didn\u2019t make\nenough allowance for the stars moving. I\u2019ve got as good quartermasters\nas any ship afloat, but I know\u2014you all know\u2014that kind of thing happens\nto all of us.\u2019 The captains nodded again. \u2018The trouble isn\u2019t with the\nman at the wheel, it\u2019s just here,\u2019\u2014and the Captain struck the palm of\none hand with the forefinger of the other several times, and they all\nlooked at it to see what it was,\u2014\u2018He hasn\u2019t the right kind of stars to\nsteer by!\u2019 The captains all looked up at the sky, and blinked, because\nit was just noon and the sun was very bright, and then looked at one\nanother, and one of them said, \u2018What kind of stars could we have? We\u2019ve\ngot all there are.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, these _stars_ are all right, but they move about so! Night after\nnight they go \u2019round and around! A man is almost too old to take his\ntrick at the wheel before he learns to make allowance for it. Now, we\u2019ve\nbeen fair and honest, and we\u2019ve steered by these stars\u2014and sworn by\nthem\u2014as long as there have been ships and sailors, and the Star People\nought to do something to help us out. So I propose to send some one to\nput it to them fairly, and see if they can\u2019t keep one star always in the\nsame place. Then we could start from that, and know where we were.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018How are you going to get up there?\u2019 asked the same captain who had\nspoken before.\n\n\u201c\u2018We\u2019ll show you after lunch,\u2019 said the Captain of the Jane Ellen. \u2018That\nis, if you all agree?\u2019\n\n\u201cThe other captain asked, \u2018Do you all agree?\u2019 and they all nodded.\n\n\u201cThen the other captain said, \u2018Three cheers for the Skipper!\u2019 and\nfifty-_one_ captains shouted, \u2018Hurrah!\u2019 three times. So that was\nsettled, and they went down to the cabin for lunch.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat did they have?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cPlum duff,\u2014full of raisins,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\u201cDid they like it?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cYou\u2019d have thought so if you\u2019d seen them. Every one took a second\nhelping until Taffy was almost discouraged. He was in a hurry to be\nthrough. But at last they were finished and back on the deck to hear\nwhat the Captain had to propose.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now,\u2019 said the Captain, \u2018we shall have to borrow your masts and some\nanchors.\u2019 They nodded, and the Captain called; \u2018Mr. Morganwg! You may\nset to work.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018At once, sir,\u2019 said Taffy, and called, \u2018Bos\u2019n!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Ay, ay, sir,\u2019 said the Bos\u2019n, running up.\n\n\u201c\u2018Call the men,\u2019 ordered the Mate.\n\n\u201cThe Bos\u2019n blew his ordinary whistle, and at the same time the captains\nbegan to go over the side of the Jane Ellen to return to their own\nships. They all looked very smiling and good-natured but one man,\u2014the\none who hadn\u2019t cheered.\n\n\u201cWhen it came his turn to say good-by, he just humped up his shoulder\nand growled, and then he turned around and said, very loud, \u2018The rest of\nyou can do as you like, but I\u2019m blowed if you take _my_ mainmast for any\nsuch foolishness!\u2019 Then he went down the side of the ship and was rowed\naway.\n\n\u201cThe captains who heard him looked perfectly disgusted, and Taffy said\nto his captain, \u2018Shall I attend to him, sir?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes!\u2019 said the Captain, and they all nodded.\n\nSo, before they did anything else, Taffy and the Bos\u2019n and his men went\nto the rude Skipper\u2019s ship (it was a brigantine, the Wandering Willie),\nand they set all the sails, and tied the ropes in hard knots instead of\njust belaying them, as every one knows is seamanlike. Then they weighed\nthe anchor, and got off as quickly as they could,\u2014and off went the\nWandering Willie! And it had gone only a little way when the wind\nchanged, and the Skipper shouted in the roughest voice, \u2018Ease \u2019er off!\u2019\nAnd when the sailors tried, they couldn\u2019t untie the knots, and the ship\nkeeled over, farther and farther, until, all at once, she turned bottom\nup, and every one had to swim back to the other ships! The crew were\nglad of it, because they were better off; and the rude captain, who\ncouldn\u2019t swim very well, had to be thankful to be pulled aboard and\nallowed to ship before the mast on the Jane Ellen. And he learned in\ntime to be a very good sailor.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat was just right for him,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s what I think,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cBut while all this was\nhappening, the work was going on on all the ships. The first thing they\ndid, they brought twenty-four large anchors, and anchored the Jane\nEllen, twelve on a side and her own two at the bows, so she couldn\u2019t\neven wabble. Then they drew up all the other ships in a long line, one\nafter another, with a space between, and unstepped the mainmast of every\nship. When every ship had her mainmast lying on the deck, beginning with\nthe Jane Ellen, they spliced them all together, the top of one to the\nbottom of the next one. It took them all that afternoon and part of the\nnext morning to do it.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, other sailors had brought twenty mizzen-masts to the Jane\nEllen, and, one after another, they were carried up her mizzen-mast and\nspliced to the top of the one below. When they were all in place some\nhoisting-tackle was made fast to the top, pulley-ropes were run through\nit and carried out over the other ships and fastened to the spliced\nmainmasts, about a third of their length away.\n\n\u201cBy this time it was four bells in the afternoon, and everybody was\npretty tired, so the Captain said they might rest for an hour, all\nexcept the cook, and he had to serve out grog. So all the seamen had\ntheir grog, and lay around on the deck and looked up at the tall\nmizzen-mast and the hoisting-tackle, and thought what a good captain\nthey had, and that the Jane Ellen was the finest ship afloat.\n\n\u201cSix bells had hardly finished striking when the Mate jumped down from\nthe rail where he had been sitting, and called, \u2018Bos\u2019n!\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Bos\u2019n sprang up and said, \u2018Ay, ay, sir!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Pipe the men aft,\u2019 ordered the Mate.\n\n\u201c\u2018Ay, ay, sir,\u2019 said the Bos\u2019n again, and blew his whistle.\n\n\u201cThe seamen all jumped up nimbly and came trooping aft to the foot of\nthe mizzen-mast. There some of them brought a winch, and some more\narranged the pulley-ropes and passed them around the winch, and carried\nthem fore and aft, and arranged more tackle around the heel of the\nmainmast, and did a great many things to them that I don\u2019t know anything\nabout, but the Mate did, for he directed it all, without stopping even\nto think. And the Captain came and looked on, and he looked as proud as\nif he had done it himself!\n\n\u201cAt last everything seemed to be done, and Taffy asked, \u2018Are you all\nready, Bos\u2019n?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Just waiting for Tom Green to sing the chanty, sir,\u2019 said he. And in a\nminute, Tom Green came.\n\n\u201cHe wasn\u2019t a very large sailor, but he had one blue and one brown eye,\nand red and blue anchors and ships and stars and a weeping-willow\ntattooed on his arms; and he wore his sleeves rolled up high to show\nthem. And he stood up on a water cask in the stern, and the sailors all\nstood ready, in long lines, with the ropes in their hands.\n\n\u201cThen the Mate said, \u2018Are you ready, Bos\u2019n?\u2019 and the Bos\u2019n said, \u2018Ay,\nay, sir!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then, hoist away!\u2019 ordered the Mate.\n\n\u201cThe Bos\u2019n blew his whistle, and Tom Green began to sing the chanty, and\nthis is how it began:\u2014\n\n (_Tom_) \u201cWe have left our happy home,\n On the ocean for to roam.\u201d\n\n (_Sailors_) \u201cYeo, ho! Away we go!\n Round the world and back again.\u2014\n Yeo\u2014heave-_ho_!\u201d\n\n (_Tom_) \u201cAnd our wives and sweethearts dear,\n May not see for more\u2019n a year.\u201d\n\n (_Sailors_) \u201cFair winds! White sails flowing free,\n Blue water \u2019neath our keel,\u2014\n That\u2019s the life for _me_!\u201d\n\n[Illustration:\n\n TOM GREEN\u2019S CHANTY\n\n TOM.\n\n We have left our hap-py home,\n On the o-cean for to roam.\n\n REFRAIN.\n\n SAILORS.\n\n Yeo-ho! A-way we go!\n Round the world and back a-gain,\n Yeo, heave ho!\n\n TOM.\n\n And our wives and sweet-hearts dear\n May not see for more\u2019n a year.\n\n SAILORS.\n\n Fair winds, white sails flow-ing free,\n Blue wa-ter \u2019neath our keel,\n That\u2019s the life for me!\n]\n\nThe Princess laughed with her eyes at the Others, while she held the\nlast long note until it seemed to die away in the woods, and they\nlaughed back, but they didn\u2019t speak, and she went on, quite seriously:\u2014\n\n\u201cI give you only one verse of it, but there were ninety-three, and it\ntold all about their life on the ocean wave and what they wanted to do,\nand Tom Green made most of it up as he went along,\u2014so perhaps he worked\nas hard as any of them!\n\n\u201cNow, every time when they sung the refrain, the sailors all pulled\ntogether on the ropes, and little by little\u2014inch by inch, almost\u2014the\ngreat long mainmast rose in the air. And on all the other ships the\nsailors stood watching, because they had nothing else to do, and they\nall joined in the chanty, and the sound of it mounted up through the\nclouds. There never was a chanty like it since the world began!\n\n\u201cIt had been bright, sunshiny weather when the work began, but all the\nafternoon the clouds had gathered until the sky was completely overcast,\nlike a solid roof of gray, and when the mast rose up, about one quarter\nof it pierced the clouds. At last it stood, straight and tall, the heel\nfirmly fixed on the step above the deck of the Jane Ellen, and the top\nhidden from sight in the cloud roof, and a shout went up that must have\nreached the heavens! Then everybody drew a long breath, and went to\nrest, and waited for it to be quite dark.\u201d\n\nThe Princess paused. \u201cPerhaps you, yourselves, would like to stop and\nhear the rest another time?\u201d she suggested. But they were sure they\nwouldn\u2019t. So, after only a moment, while Pat changed to another place,\nshe went on:\u2014\n\n\u201cWhen it was time, and every one was on deck (the other captains had\ncome aboard again), the Captain of the Jane Ellen looked up at the great\ntall mast, going up and up until it went out of sight in the clouds, and\nhe said to the other captains, \u2018Whom shall I send up to talk to the Star\nPeople?\u2019 And the other captains said, very decidedly, \u2018You\u2019ll have to\nsend an able seaman.\u2019\n\n\u201cSo the Bos\u2019n picked out the very best able seaman there was, and he\nstepped out before the captains. He swayed his body when he walked, and\nhitched up his trousers, and he could dance a hornpipe better than any\nman aboard, and wrap his leg four times around a rope when he climbed.\nHe was just the man to climb to the top of that great tall mast.\n\n\u201cThe Captain looked at the Able Seaman, and said, \u2018You go aloft there;\nand when you get to the top, you tell the Star People you want to talk\nto their captain. Do you understand?\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Able Seaman pulled his forelock and said, \u2018Ay, ay, sir,\u2019 and the\nCaptain went on: \u2018You tell him, we want _one star_ that we can depend\non, to steer by. We\u2019ve steered by them ever since there were ships, and\nthey move about all the time, and we can\u2019t stand it any longer! We\u2019ve\ndone the fair thing by them, and now they can do the fair thing by us,\nor by Jiminy! we\u2019ll throw the whole lot of \u2019em over, and they\u2019ll be out\nof a job!\u2014Do you understand?\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Able Seaman pulled his forelock and said, \u2018Ay, ay, sir.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then, up you go!\u2019 and the Able Seaman turned away and came to the foot\nof the great tall mast.\n\n\u201cThere were two ropes that ran from the top to the bottom. He wound his\nleg four times around one of them, and took hold of the other and began\nto climb. And everybody watched him go up and up, and grow smaller and\nsmaller until he wasn\u2019t nearly so large as a fly. And then he went clear\nout of sight in the clouds. And they couldn\u2019t have seen him at all, any\nof the way, if they hadn\u2019t thrown a strong light on him as he went up.\n\n\u201cThen\u2014though there was nothing to see, and their necks ached\u2014nobody\ncould take his eyes from the spot where he disappeared. And before very\nlong they saw a little speck, smaller than a fly, appear again and come\ndown the great tall mast,\u2014so tall it took thirty-eight minutes to come\ndown from the place where it entered the cloud. The captains hardly\ncould wait for him to get down.\n\n\u201c\u2018What did you find?\u2019 asked the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018A lot of Star People\u2014I dunno who they was,\u2019 answered the Able Seaman.\n\n\u201c\u2018Well,\u2014what did they say?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018They wanted to know what that singin\u2019 was, this afternoon.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But what did they say about the _star_?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I didn\u2019t ask \u2019em.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Didn\u2019t ask them!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No. I come back to ask what to say about the singin\u2019. You didn\u2019t tell\nme that.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018_Thunder!_\u2019 said the Captain. \u2018Did you come clear down here to ask me\nthat? You get back, as quick as ever you can, and tell them what I said.\nOf course you\u2019re to answer a civil question!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Ay, ay, sir,\u2019 said the Able Seaman without winking; and he climbed up\nthe mast again. And all the captains watched him as before, only their\nnecks ached a little harder.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n EVERYBODY WATCHED HIM GO UP AND UP\n]\n\n\u201cHe was gone a trifle longer, and then back he came. It only took\nthirty-six minutes this time, because he was more used to it (beside the\ntime it took to go up, of course, and the time he was above the clouds).\n\n\u201c\u2018Well?\u2019 said the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018I tol\u2019 \u2019em it was the chanty. And I asked to speak to the captain, an\u2019\na big man said they hadn\u2019t no captain,\u2014they\u2019re a Republic.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then what?\u2019 asked the Captain, as the Able Seaman paused.\n\n\u201c\u2018Then, I didn\u2019t know who to ask for,\u2014so I\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Thunder-_ation_!\u2019 cried the Captain. \u2018Did you come clear down here\nagain, to ask me _that_? You go back\u2014quick\u2014and don\u2019t you come down again\ntill you finish your errand!\u2019 And the Able Seaman said, \u2018Ay, ay,\nsir,\u2019\u2014and all the other captains looked at each other and said,\n\u2018_Thunderation!_\u2019 or some other word that meant the same thing.\n\n\u201cThen the Able Seaman climbed up the mast again, and nearly all of them\nwatched him. But some of the captains who had short necks couldn\u2019t watch\nanother minute, until one of them lay down on his back on the deck; then\na good many of them did the same thing, and were more comfortable.\n\n\u201cAnd this time he was gone a long time\u2014so long, the Captain was just\ngoing to send up the second-best able seaman to see what was the matter,\nwhen they saw him coming down. It took a little longer, because the leg\nof his trousers caught in the third twist of the rope, and he had to\nunwrap his leg and twist it around again. It took forty-one minutes this\ntime, and it seemed _forever_ to the captains! Three or four of them\nwaited at the foot of the mast, and caught at him as he slid down.\n\n\u201c\u2018What did they say?\u2019\u2014\u2018Will they do it?\u2019\u2014they asked eagerly.\n\n\u201cThe Able Seaman breathed hard. \u2018You wait a minute\u2014till I get\u2014my\nbreath.\u2019\n\n\u201cThey waited. Finally the Captain said: \u2018Now?\u2019 and the Able Seaman\npulled his forelock and said: \u2018I tol\u2019 \u2019em, sir,\u2014just as you said,\u2014an\u2019\nthey all talked an\u2019 talked\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018_Who_ talked?\u2019 asked the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018I dunno their names. I ain\u2019t no navigator.\u2014There was the big man, an\u2019\na woman sittin\u2019 in a chair, an\u2019 another man, and a feller with a head in\nhis hand\u2014all snakes!\u2014an\u2019 a big dragon kep\u2019 pokin\u2019 his blame head in all\nthe time,\u2014an\u2019 some more people; an\u2019 they all talked to onc\u2019t.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What did they say? Will they give us the star?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I can\u2019t make out,\u2019 said the Able Seaman. \u2018I guess they was willin\u2019,\nbut they didn\u2019t seem to know what to do, and they was quarrelin\u2019 about\nwho\u2019d do it.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Captain looked around. \u2018Mr. Morganwg!\u2019 he said. (The Mate was there\nalmost before he spoke.) \u2018It\u2019s no use. You\u2019ll have to go.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Certainly, sir,\u2019 said Taffy, and his eyes shone when he said it, and\nhe turned and walked to the foot of the mast.\n\n\u201cHe weighed two hundred and eleven pounds, but he walked so lightly his\nfeet seemed hardly to touch the deck; and when he sprang into the ropes\nand began to go up the mast, he made the Able Seaman look like an\napprentice! And the captains all stood and watched him, and they were so\npleased and so sure it would be all right, their necks almost forgot to\nache.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe wanted to go,\u201d said Phyllisy, when the Princess paused.\n\n\u201cHe\u2019d better have gone before, and saved all that time,\u201d observed Pat.\n\nBut the Princess said nothing for a moment. Then she went on with the\nstory: \u201cUp and up climbed Taffy, higher and higher, until it seemed to\nhim a thick cloud came down and wrapped him about so he could see only a\nfew feet ahead of him. But he knew it didn\u2019t come down at all. It was he\nwho had climbed up into the clouds. So he kept steadily on, and very\nsoon it began to grow thin; and as he came out of it he saw a sight that\nalmost took his breath away, and made him lose his hold of the rope. But\nhe wouldn\u2019t even look, but kept climbing on until he reached the top of\nthe fifty-second mast, and with one leg wrapped easily around one rope,\nand his elbow resting on the gilt ball on the top of the mast, and his\nchin in his hand, he was as comfortable as a boy in an apple tree. Now\nhe had time to look about him,\u2014and he could take it, for the Star People\nwere so busy talking among themselves they hadn\u2019t seen him come.\n\n\u201cTwo persons seemed to be the centre of the group. One was a tall,\nsplendid man with a sword on his belt and a shaggy lion\u2019s hide hanging\ncarelessly over his arm. Set in his belt and on his head and in the\nclasp around his knee were great blazing stars, and two dogs were at his\nheels.\u201d\n\n\u201cOrion,\u201d said Phyllisy, \u201cI used to know him ages ago.\u201d\n\nThe Princess nodded: \u201cYes. Taffy knew him at once.\u2014The person to whom he\nwas talking was a beautiful lady (not so very young), who sat in a\nmassive, star-jeweled chair, and was alternately crying and scolding,\nwhile a man, evidently her husband, leaned over the chair and tried to\nquiet her. Near by stood a young man, looking very sulky; and from his\nhand swung a curious object. It was a woman\u2019s head, with snakes instead\nof hair.\u201d\n\n\u201c_Snakes?_\u201d said Pat, her voice sliding up and down on it.\n\n\u201c_Snakes_,\u201d said the Princess, firmly.\n\n\u201cFor pitysakes!\u201d\n\n\u201cThey had once been quite stiff and wriggly snakes, and had stood up on\nend, each one of them, and squirmed, but now they were limp and raggy.\nAnd Taffy didn\u2019t wonder when he saw how Perseus was absent-mindedly\nswinging it by one or another of the snakes, and letting it wind up and\nunwind again around his finger.\n\n\u201cLike Orion and his dogs, these people and others who crowded near were\nstudded and decked with shining stars; and it was by their stars, that\nhe knew so well, that Taffy recognized these Star People in their\nunaccustomed places.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, I _could_!\u2019 the lady in the chair was saying. \u2018And he isn\u2019t the\none to say, anyway!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What\u2019s the matter?\u2019 asked Taffy; and they all jumped, and then all\nbegan talking at once, so he couldn\u2019t understand a word they said.\n\n\u201c\u2018Hus-sh!\u2019 he said, holding up his hand. And they gradually stopped\ntalking, all but Orion. (And Cassiopeia kept on saying things to her\nhusband\u2014but that didn\u2019t count.)\n\n\u201c\u2018Who are you?\u2019 asked Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019m the Mate of the Jane Ellen,\u2019 said Taffy. \u2018And I want to know\nwhat\u2019s the trouble. It doesn\u2019t seem much to ask for\u2014just one star.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No,\u2019 answered Orion, \u2019it doesn\u2019t. And we\u2019re all willing. But who is\ngoing to hold that star?\u2014and how are we going to know it\u2019s always in the\nsame spot?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I should think you might agree about that easily enough,\u2019 said Taffy.\n\n\u201c\u2018Well, we can\u2019t,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018I can\u2019t do it; I have other things to\nattend to.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018And you won\u2019t let any one else!\u2019 broke in Cassiopeia. \u2018You know how I\njust sit in my chair, and I\u2019d love to hold it.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018She can\u2019t,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018Pretty thing for a woman to do!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019m not a woman,\u2019 observed Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018Don\u2019t you say another word!\u2019 said Cassiopeia. (\u2018And stop twirling that\nGorgon!\u2014You make me nervous.) You know perfectly well, you have to keep\naway the monster from my darling child.\u2019\n\n\u201cPerseus said no more, but he looked sulkier than ever.\n\n\u201c\u2018No, he can\u2019t,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018And beside that, you\u2019re used to seeing us\nmove about. Now if one of us gives up his own place, it will mix you all\nup.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s true,\u2019 said Taffy. And just as he spoke, something rubbed\nagainst his hand,\u2014something that sent a little prickly shock through him\nat first, and at the same time, the very softest thing he ever had felt\nor imagined.\n\n\u201cHe looked down and saw a little bear\u2014but such a little bear! His long\nfur was, in color, a beautiful blue-gray, and the tip of each hair\nseemed to have been dipped in moonlight or powdered with star-dust, for\nit shone and glinted in the starlight as he moved; and his eyes twinkled\nlike two little stars themselves; and curiously enough for a little\nbear, he had a great long tail. And unlike any of the Star People, he\nhadn\u2019t a star on him anywhere.\n\n\u201c\u2018Hello, little one!\u2019 said Taffy. \u2018What are you doing here?\u2019 And he bent\ndown to stroke Little Bear. Little Bear leaned against his leg; and as\nhis hand sank in the soft, soft fur, and again the electric tingles ran\nup his arm, it was as if they took the message to his brain: \u2018Oh, dear\nTaffy, let _me_ take care of the Sailor\u2019s Star!\u2019\n\n\u201cIt came so clearly to him, Taffy spoke again: \u2018Would you really like\nit?\u2019\u2014and the answer came, like a long, \u2018Oh-h!\u2019 of rapture.\n\n\u201c\u2018See here,\u2019 said Taffy to the Star People. \u2018Why don\u2019t you let this\nlittle chap have it? That would settle it.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Little Bear?\u2019 said everybody. Then everybody looked at everybody else,\nand said, \u2018Why not?\u2019\u2014because they all loved Little Bear; and they were\nglad to find a way to settle the dispute and stop talking.\n\n\u201cTaffy told them what to do; and Cassiopeia was the first one to take a\nlovely star from the back of her dress, where it never had been seen by\nthe sailors and wouldn\u2019t be missed; and they all agreed that, if she\ncouldn\u2019t hold the Sailor\u2019s Star herself, she should be the one to give\nit. And they fastened that star on the very tip of Little Bear\u2019s tail.\nThen Orion and Perseus and the Big Dragon, who came and looked on, and\nthe rest of them gave more stars to fasten on Little Bear, and he stood\npressed against Taffy\u2019s knee while they did it; and his fur sparkled and\nshone and his two bright eyes twinkled, bright as any of the stars,\nwhile little electric thrills of pleasure and gratitude ran to Taffy\u2019s\nheart as his hand stroked the beautiful fur that was softer than\nanything in the whole World!\n\n\u201c\u2018There!\u2019 said Orion, as he fastened the last star and pushed one of the\ndogs back with his foot, while Little Bear growled, a soft small growl.\n\u2018He\u2019s fine as a birthday cake! Now I want to know how you are going to\nbe sure that star is always in the right place?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Easy enough!\u2019 said Taffy. \u2018You know where the North Pole is, don\u2019t\nyou?\u2019\n\n[Illustration:\n\n \u201cOH, DEAR TAFFY, LET _ME_ TAKE CARE OF THE SAILOR\u2019S STAR\u201d\n]\n\n\u201c\u2018Of course we do,\u2019 said Orion, and the other Star People echoed: \u2018Of\ncourse!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then, all Little Bear has to do is to keep the star directly over that\nPole. And he\u2019ll do it,\u2019 said Taffy, laying his hand on Little Bear\u2019s\nhead\u2014and the message thrilled through it: \u2018Oh, I will, dear Taffy! The\nSailor\u2019s Star shall never wander!\u2019\n\n\u201cWhen the Mate stepped on to the deck of the Jane Ellen it was almost\nmorning, and all the captains who weren\u2019t asleep had such stiff necks\nthey hardly could turn their heads to look at him. And when he touched\nhis cap and said to the Captain of the Jane Ellen: \u2018It\u2019s all arranged,\nsir,\u2019 they were so worn out they were glad to go back to their own ships\nand go to bed without asking a single question. It wouldn\u2019t have been\nany use if they had, for the Captain took Taffy straight into his own\ncabin and shut the door; and that was the last any one saw of them that\nnight.\n\n\u201cThe next morning every one was as busy as a bee; and they worked so\nfast that before evening every mast had been put back, and the\ntwenty-four anchors returned to their own ships, and they were all ready\nto sail.\n\n\u201cDuring the afternoon the clouds had broken up, and the sun went down in\na clear sky. As darkness fell, the crew of each ship assembled on the\ndeck, with every eye fixed on the Northern sky.\n\n\u201cTaffy stood beside the Captain of the Jane Ellen while the rose-red\nfaded into yellow, and palest green, and violet, and a few large stars\ncame out, one by one. Then,\u2014faint at first, then, brighter and\nbrighter,\u2014the stars that told Taffy Little Bear was at his post! And a\ngreat shout went up from all the ships, that must have reached the sky!\nIt seemed to Taffy that the stars glowed brighter, and he could almost\nfeel the touch of soft fur, softer than anything in the world, and a\nlittle thrill went to his heart, that said: \u2018You see, Taffy dear, I\u2019m\nhere!\u2019\n\n\u201cThen the fifty-two ships set sail in every direction, and the Jane\nEllen was alone once more. And all night long, as she went on her way,\nwhenever Taffy looked up at the Northern sky, the Sailor\u2019s Star hung\nover the Pole. But Little Bear swung slowly, slowly around it, watching,\nwatching the ships that were sailing to all quarters of the world. And\non every ship the sailors said:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018God bless the Little Bear!\u2019\u201d\n\n\nAs the Princess came to the end the children grew very still. When she\nhad spoken the last word no one stirred for a moment. Then they all\nstirred at once. The Kitten slid off from her big chair and came\nstraight across to sit on the Princess\u2019s silken knee, and the Others\nwith her, to crowd as close as they could,\u2014to talk about it and ask all\nthe questions they had saved for the end, not to interrupt the story.\nAnd they had a great deal to say, and had saved a great many questions.\n\n\u201cYou did understand, didn\u2019t you, Kitten?\u201d said the Princess. \u201cI knew you\nwould.\u201d\n\nThe Kitten nodded, and wriggled on the Princess\u2019s knee. \u201cCould you feel\nit prickle?\u201d she asked.\n\n\u201c\u2018Little thrills,\u2019 she means,\u201d Phyllisy suggested.\n\n\u201cUm-m,\u201d said the Kitten. \u201cThat night\u2014you said he brought a message.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut you were asleep,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\u201cI heard. Would it hurt?\u201d\n\n\u201cNo, indeed! It was a little warm thrill that went to my heart.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe same as Taffy,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cJust the same,\u201d said the Princess.\n\nThen Miss Phyllisy brought her the rosy hat, and she pinned it on; for\nthere were long shadows across the sloping lawn and the petunia bed;\nonly the high steps down the terrace were still in the sun.\n\n\n\n\n III\n THE COMET AND THE POLE STAR\n\n\n\u201cHow did they fasten the stars on him?\u201d asked the Kitten. She didn\u2019t say\nwho \u201che\u201d was, but they knew, though it was quite another time.\n\n\u201cWith a half-hitch and another half-hitch, then belay,\u201d said the\nPrincess, promptly. \u201cMuch better than sewing them, or pins. Don\u2019t you\nthink so?\u201d\n\n\u201cPins would stick him,\u201d agreed the Kitten.\n\n\u201cWhereabouts did they fasten them?\u201d asked Pat.\n\nThe Princess reached out her arm and picked a narrow pointed shell out\nfrom the hard sand. It lay broad and brown between them and the gray\nsea, worrying, whiteand-green at the other edge. Out over the sea\nwhitish-gray fog was waiting all around in a circle. It went up and\njoined the gray sky over; and a salt smell blew out of it.\n\nShe began to draw in the sand with the pointed shell, and the Others\nwatched it grow. She began at his head and worked back, quickly.\n\n\u201cIs it going to be Little Bear?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cBut I can\u2019t make it really a likeness.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou could, Dearie, if you had a pencil and paper,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\u201cNobody could, in the sand with a shell.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s like him the way the map is America,\u201d said Pat. \u201cMore\u2014_much_.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow make the stars,\u201d said the Kitten, when she drew his last foot.\n\n\u201cNo,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cYou must do that.\u2014Who\u2019ll give a star to Little\nBear?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat shall we give?\u201d asked Pat. But the Kitten spied a clear, shiny\npebble, and she didn\u2019t need to be told; she pounced at it quickly, and\npurred when the Princess took it from her.\n\n\u201c\u2018And they fastened that star on the very tip of Little Bear\u2019s tail,\u2019\u201d\nquoted Phyllisy. \u201cNow we must all give stars.\u201d\n\nSo they scurried over the sand and brought suitable pebbles to the\nPrincess,\u2014and some of them were shells,\u2014and she showed them where to\nplace them, where he truly wore them; but they placed only the principal\nones, because it was a sketch, not a likeness.\n\n\u201cBut you don\u2019t _see_ even this\u2014of a bear\u2014in the sky?\u201d said Pat,\ndoubtfully. It wasn\u2019t as easy for her to make believe as it was for\nPhyllisy. Phyllisy loved it. As for the Kitten, it was no trouble for\nher; real or make-believe, it was all alike.\n\n\u201cNo, indeed,\u201d said Phyllisy, explaining to Pat, and perfectly familiar\nwith it. \u201cJust the stars of him, and play the rest. When it\u2019s night,\nwe\u2019ll look, and see if we can find them ourselves.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou can\u2019t when it\u2019s cloudy,\u201d said Pat. \u201cAnd it\u2019s cloudy to-night\u2014will\nbe.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd the Star People will have a holiday,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\u201cWill they?\u201d asked the Others, though she had just said it.\n\n\u201cSure as sure. When it\u2019s a cloudy night and the sailors couldn\u2019t see\nthem wherever they were, they may go where they like.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey might go where they like in the daytime,\u201d said the Kitten.\n\n\u201cSo they might. But you have to sleep some time, Kit. And if you have to\nstay up all night to be looked at, you\u2019d better take a long nap in the\ndaytime. So, when it begins to be light, the Star People just quietly\nfade away in their places, then when night comes they wake up, fresh as\ndaisies.\u201d\n\n\u201cSuppose some time they would go off, and it was a clear night\u2014and they\nmoved around?\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t imagine anything so dreadful,\u2014nor the Star People, either!\nDon\u2019t you fancy, because they haven\u2019t any captain, that they have\nnothing to obey.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat?\u201d\n\n\u201cThey have _Law_!\u2014and that\u2019s something every one of them obeys without a\nsingle word, or ever stopping to argue. When anything is the Rule of the\nSky, that ends it.\u2014Unless you\u2019re a comet.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, comets!\u201d exclaimed Phyllisy.\u201d What do they do?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat don\u2019t they do?\u201d corrected the Princess. \u201cThey\u2019re silly. Just a\nhead, with the wildest, fuzziliest hair,\u201d\u2014she drew on the sand as she\ntalked,\u2014\u201cthat never _saw_ a hairbrush\u2014and tails!\u2014switching and flying\nand spreading over everything and curling around!\u2014and, as if one such\ntail weren\u2019t bad enough, some of them must have two!\u201d\n\nThe Princess stopped drawing, because the sand was filled up with\ncomets, as far as she could reach. \u201cThat one is like the Kitten,\u201d said\nPat. \u201cYours would be, if it weren\u2019t braided,\u201d the Kitten answered.\n\n\u201cOnly in looks, I\u2019m sure,\u201d said the Princess, politely. \u201cThe Star People\ntry to be charitable, and when they hear of some fresh bad thing one of\nthose flyaways has done, they say: \u2018He doesn\u2019t know enough to be good;\u2019\nand they don\u2019t talk about it any more. But when any really horrid\nmischief is done, it\u2019s always when a comet or two has been around.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat did one do?\u2014some mischief,\u201d Pat suggested.\n\n\u201cI should think you\u2019d all rather hear about somebody good,\u201d said the\nPrincess. But the Others giggled\u2014and wouldn\u2019t.\n\n\u201cMake some more Star People while you consider, Dearie,\u201d urged Phyllisy.\n\nSo the Princess moved along the sand (and they were glad it was a good,\ngray day, not glaring), and she drew more, the same way as Little Bear.\nThey didn\u2019t try to be likenesses, but you would know whom they were\nmeant for,\u2014Cassiopeia and the Dragon and Orion and more,\u2014and the Others\nput in the stars. It used a great many pebbles and shells, though they\nput in only the principal ones. But they ought to be pretty ones, so\nthey went a good way off to find them.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n DRACO\n\n \u201cThis is the way Draco looked, guarding the Golden Fleece, except his\n expression. He had to look fierce then, but he always had a sweet\n nature.\u2014You\u2019ll observe that he has no teeth. He did have, but Jason\n took them. He threw the magic drops straight into Draco\u2019s jaws when\n they were gaping open to swallow him, and the Dragon went so\n immediately to sleep that he hadn\u2019t even time to close his mouth.\n Then Jason took, not only the fleece, but his teeth; because he\n always liked to have a few dragon\u2019s teeth in his pocket. He had used\n them before, for a Bewitchment, and he never knew when he might need\n them.\u2014Very few people know about this, but it\u2019s just as true as the\n part they do know.\u201d The Princess spoke severely, but the Others\n giggled.\n\n They thought Draco ought to have stars on his tail, but she said his\n wings folded back over most of it when they weren\u2019t set up. Hercules\n gave him the small star on his nose, because he had a great many,\n and Draco needed that one to make him symmetrical.\n]\n\nWhen they came back from farther off, they couldn\u2019t guess what the long\nwavy line was meant for, that she was drawing beyond Orion\u2014in deep loops\ndown and back.\n\n\u201cThis is the Starland River,\u201d she explained. \u201cThe Ancients called it the\nEridanus. That was the name of one of their own Earth rivers. Once\nPhaeton tried to drive the chariot of the Sun,\u2014the Sun God was his\nfather,\u2014but he didn\u2019t know how, and horses, chariot, and all plunged\ninto the river, and he was drowned for his folly, but the chariot and\nhorses came out shining again the next morning at sunrise. And Phaeton\u2019s\nthree sisters stood on the bank of the river and mourned and mourned for\nhim, and wouldn\u2019t go away. So Jupiter kindly changed them into poplar\ntrees;\u2014and right here\u2014and here\u2014and here\u201d\u2014she showed the places and the\nOthers laid especial shells\u2014\u201care the stars that mark the tall poplars on\nthe bank. At least, that\u2019s what I think. You may choose others if you\nlike, but they are certainly there.\u201d\n\nThe Princess surprisingly sprang up, and the pointed shell flew out of\nher hand, over the hard sand, and beyond the worrying green-white edge,\ninto the gray sea.\n\n\u201cWhat did you do that for?\u201d Pat remonstrated.\n\n\u201cBecause-that-was-a-sign-that-it-wouldn\u2019t-be-lucky-to-have-any-more-\ndrawing-on-the-sand-because-that-was-Enough,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\u201cWill you tell it now?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\nAnd she would; but back under the cliff, where there were rocks\u2014smooth\nand hollowed by the ocean, long ago, and another one for a back,\u2014and\nwhere those crazy comets on the sand wouldn\u2019t be looking at them.\n\n\n\u201cYou hardly would believe how happy the care of the Sailor\u2019s Star made\nLittle Bear,\u201d said the Princess, when they were all comfortable,\u2014\u201cproud\nof his responsibility, and most grateful to the Star People.\u201d\n\n\u201cBecause they gave him stars?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cYes, and allowed him to have that responsible thing to do when he\nwanted it so much; and it made them happy to see his pleasure, and to\nfeel that they all had a share in it\u2014because he was their own dear\nLittle Bear. Now, at the time this story happened, everything had been\ncomfortable and pleasant for a long time. Little Bear hadn\u2019t had his\nstar so long he had forgotten the time before he had it; but he had\ngrown used to having it on the end of his tail, and could keep it over\nthe Pole without giving his mind to it. And nobody had seen a comet for\never so long, so they weren\u2019t thinking about them.\n\n\u201cBut, very early one morning, any one of the Star People who had been\nawake to look, might have seen, peeping up over the rim of the Sky, a\nsmall, vagabond head. He shook his fuzzy hair out of his eyes and came\nup a little farther, switching his long tail that had a wicked crook at\nthe end of it, as he danced up and down like an elf! A more rascally\nComet you wouldn\u2019t care to see!\u201d\n\nThe Others wriggled with appreciation, but they didn\u2019t speak, to\ninterrupt.\n\n\u201cThe Star People were in their first sleep, and not dreaming of any\nharm; and what a chance for the worst, small comet in the Sky!\n\n\u201cWhat should he do? Hammer a dent in Cepheus\u2019 crown? Tie a knot in the\nDragon\u2019s tail? He darted here and there,\u2014rapid, uncertain little darts;\nnothing seemed quite worth while when he had such an opportunity.\n\n\u201cCassiopeia stirred slightly in her chair, and the wicked imp dropped\nwhere he was, and wound himself all up, like a porcupine, holding\nhimself together by the crook in his tail. You never would have guessed\nthat he could tuck all his wild hair and streaming tail into a little\nround bunch, as quick as a flash! But she didn\u2019t wake up, so he let\nhimself go, and his hair and tail sprang out like a jack-in-the-box; and\nnow he danced harder than ever, for rage!\n\n\u201cHow he did hate Cassiopeia! He remembered how she had boxed his ears\nwhen he had come that way before, and he would rather do something to\nplague her than anything else. He looked about him, and saw Little Bear,\nfast asleep\u2014never dreaming of any harm,\u2014and he stopped short in his\ndance. He knew, now, what he could do; but, wicked little Comet as he\nwas, he was almost frightened. This was much worse than anything any of\nthem ever had done. But how it would plague Cassiopeia!\u2014and set the\nwhole sky by the ears. He puckered up his face and stuck out his tongue\nat her.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd she couldn\u2019t see him,\u201d Pat murmured.\n\n\u201cThen there was a whizz,\u2014a switch of a long tail with a crook in the end\nof it,\u2014a zigzag streak of light across the morning sky\u2014and the Comet was\ngone!\n\n\u201cAnd the Star People were all sound asleep, and never dreamed he had\nbeen there.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n A MORE RASCALLY COMET YOU WOULDN\u2019T CARE TO SEE\n]\n\n\u201cOh, dear! It seemed almost a pity Little Bear had to wake up at all,\nwith such trouble waiting for him. But the time had to come, and he\nstirred a little and opened one eye, and shut it again and rolled on to\nhis side. There he lay for a minute; then he gave a soft sneeze that\nwaked him up altogether. So he opened his eyes, that twinkled like\nstars, and looked about him. Every one else was still sleeping, and that\nseemed like wasting time, because it was a cloudy night, which meant a\nholiday. So Little Bear stood up and shook himself, and sparks seemed to\nfly from his fur, and then\u2014his heart gave a great jump, and almost\nstopped beating!\u2014The Sailor\u2019s Star was gone!\n\n\u201cIt was such a blow he could hardly see, and he sat down, quite dazed.\n\n\u201cIn a few minutes Cassiopeia opened her eyes. Now, Little Bear felt as\nif he couldn\u2019t stand it to have any one know what had happened to him.\nBut the minute he saw Cassiopeia was awake, though it was the last thing\nhe meant to do, and before he knew what he was about, he had run to her\nand put his head in her lap; and she knew in a second something was\nwrong.\n\n\u201c\u2018Why, Little Bear, what is it?\u2019 she began to say\u2014then she saw\u2014and such\nan outcry! Everybody awoke, and the next minute, everybody was searching\nin every possible and impossible place;\u2014all but Little Bear. He was too\nmiserable to do anything but sit still, and wish the clouds would rise\nup and cover him all over.\u201d\n\n\u201cPoor little soul!\u201d said Phyllisy, and the Others crooned in sympathy,\nthe Princess with them. Then she went on:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018It\u2019s no use. It isn\u2019t here,\u2019 said Cepheus, who had been down on his\nhands and knees, looking, just as hard as if he hadn\u2019t been a king. (He\ntucked his sceptre under his arm while he was looking, except when he\npoked with it in a corner.) As he spoke, he stood up and straightened\nout the \u2018crick\u2019 in his back, and the others took it for a signal to stop\nthe search.\n\n\u201cCassiopeia had stopped some time before, without any signal, and sat in\nher chair, with Little Bear leaning against her knee again.\n\n\u201c\u2018No, I didn\u2019t think it was any use,\u2019 she said, significantly. \u2018That\nstar didn\u2019t go without hands,\u2014or _claws_!\u2019\u2014and she looked straight at\nDraco, who stood every night before Little Bear, to guard him, looking\nvery terrible, though he hadn\u2019t a tooth in his head. But no one would\nknow that unless he spoke, and he had been hunting for the star as hard\nas any of them.\n\n\u201c\u2018Doeth thhe mean _me_?\u2019 he asked, in surprise. (He lisped a little, on\naccount of having no teeth.) Then, indignantly: \u2018I thould think you\u2019d be\nathamed!\u2014I believe you took it back yourthelf!\u2014Indian-giver!\u2019\n\n\u201cCassiopeia\u2019s hand flew to the back of her dress where the star had\nbeen, and she began hotly: \u2018The idea\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018There, there,\u2019 said Cepheus, soothingly, while Little Bear stirred\nuneasily, \u2018don\u2019t quarrel! It\u2019s bad enough without that.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Maybe he didn\u2019t take it _himself_,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018But it\u2019s a very\npoor watch he kept. And this isn\u2019t the first time something has been\nlost while he was asleep!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Shame on you!\u2019 cried Cepheus. (And it was mean in her to call up the\ntime when he lost the Golden Fleece.)\n\n\u201c\u2018Don\u2019t mind her,\u2019 said Perseus to Draco. \u2018She doesn\u2019t mean anything.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t think Cathiopeia liketh me very well,\u2019 said Draco, almost\ncrying. \u2018I can\u2019t thtay awake all day. I alwayth did need a great deal of\nthleep.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Well, let\u2019s not talk about it any more,\u2019 said Cassiopeia, impatiently.\n\u2018We\u2019d better be doing something! It\u2019s a good thing it\u2019s so cloudy. I\u2019ll\ntell you what you do,\u2019 she went on, turning to Cepheus. \u2018You go straight\nto Boreas, and tell him he mustn\u2019t blow away one scrap of cloud until we\nfind that star.\u2019 Boreas had a great conch shell, like a trumpet, and\nwhen he shouted his orders through it, the clouds flew before the\nsound\u2014just as he told them to go.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe North Wind,\u201d said Pat. \u201cI\u2019ve heard about him. He lived in a cave.\u201d\n\nThe Princess nodded. \u201c\u2018I don\u2019t think it looks very well for me to be\nrunning errands,\u2019 said Cepheus.\n\n\u201c\u2018Looks or no looks, you go along,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018I\u2019m going on one\nmyself.\u2019\n\n\u201cWhen Orion waked up that night he was pleased to see the clouds,\nbecause there was something he wanted to do. Every one knows he was a\nfamous hunter; and there was no animal so fierce or so wild that he\ncould not face it and conquer it. But that was not what he prided\nhimself upon. What he liked to do, more than anything, and what he\nthought was his special talent, was gardening!\n\n\u201cHe had his garden on the Milky Way, where he was forever planting\nthings, and digging them up again to look at the roots, and\ntransplanting them to see if they wouldn\u2019t do better somewhere else, and\npruning them and training them and spraying them; and the only rest and\nchance to grow those poor things had was when there was a long spell of\nclear weather, and Orion had to leave them alone! And with all his care,\nthere wasn\u2019t a place on the whole Milky Way that had so many bare spots\nin it as Orion\u2019s garden!\u201d\n\n\u201cLike mine,\u201d observed Pat.\n\n\u201cNow, he had some young meteors just coming up; so, as soon as he was\nawake, he called his two dogs and set out for his garden. He was down on\nhis knees examining the young plants, when the dogs began to bark. He\nlooked up, and he was astonished to see Cassiopeia hurrying toward him.\n\n\u201c\u2018I knew where I should find you!\u2019 she called, breathing hard. (She\nwasn\u2019t exactly thin.)\n\n\u201c\u2018What over the Sun brings you here?\u2019 exclaimed Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018Somebody\u2019s stolen the Pole Star!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No!\u2019 cried he.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, they have. While we were asleep. It was there, all right, when\nLittle Bear went to sleep, and when he waked up, it was gone.\u2019\n\n\u201cOrion scowled fearfully. \u2018There\u2019s just one Star Person who would do\nsuch a thing\u2014\u2019 he began.\n\nCassiopeia interrupted him:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Now that\u2019s all nonsense! Just because you hate the Scorpion, is no\nsign he would steal. You\u2019d better come along with me, and we\u2019ll have a\nmeeting to see what to do.\u2019\n\n\u201cAs Cassiopeia and Orion were coming back together, they met Cepheus,\nreturning from his errand.\n\n\u201c\u2018Did you see Boreas?\u2019 called she.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes,\u2019 answered Cepheus, pushing up his crown. (It didn\u2019t fit very\nwell, and was always slipping down.) \u2018He says he\u2019ll do the best he can;\nbut he can\u2019t promise more than two days.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, we\u2019ll find it before then,\u2019 said Orion, confidently.\n\n\u201cBut before the two days were gone he began to feel very differently,\nand so did every one else. They talked and they talked, and suggested\nand consulted, and hunted, and went back and hunted again and again in\nall the places they had searched before; and every one almost began to\nlook suspiciously at every one else.\n\n\u201cAnd it would have made any one\u2019s heart ache, to see Little Bear. No one\nblamed him, but he couldn\u2019t help feeling that it was his fault, and he\n_wanted_ his dear Star, too. So he mourned and drooped, and all the\nsparkle went off from his beautiful soft fur, and out of his bright\neyes; and when Perseus offered to let him take the Gorgon\u2019s head to play\nwith, he didn\u2019t even care for that.\n\n\u201cCassiopeia took him up into her chair beside her, and sang little songs\nto him. The one about the fishes, that he always liked.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat song?\u201d asked the Kitten, quickly.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n ORION\n\n \u201cOrion was a mighty hunter,\u201d she explained. \u201cThis is the way he would\n attack a lion or any wild creature, without the slightest fear. But\n he died at last from the bite of a scorpion. The Scorpion is in the\n sky too, spread out very glittering\u2014a lobstery-kind of a thing\u2014but\n never at the same time as Orion, because that wouldn\u2019t be good\n manners. So, sometimes we see Orion marching across, with his two\n dogs, Sirius and Procyon; then we see the Scorpion, but never the\n two together.\u201d\n\n And she couldn\u2019t draw the dogs near him, where they belonged, because\n the Kitten had stepped there; they had to move along to a place\n where the sand was smooth.\n]\n\n\u201cThis,\u201d answered the Princess:\u2014\n\n There are just as good fish in the sea\u2014the sea\n As ever came out (they say);\n But the finest fish that ever were there\n Have come to the Sky to stay.\n\n These fishes lived in a pool\u2014a pool,\n Where coral and seaweed grow.\n The great waves dash on the reef without,\n But here they ripple and flow.\n\n You\u2019d think \u2019twas a place where a fish\u2014a fish\n Would willingly live and die;\n But these two fishes were not content\u2014\n They wanted to go to the Sky!\n\n The Fisherman, up above\u2014above,\n Espied the fish from afar;\n He spun a line from a moonbeam fine,\n And baited it with a star.\n\n Now, these silly fish didn\u2019t try\u2014didn\u2019t try\n To make the best of their home;\n They fumed and they splashed and they lashed their tails,\n Till the water was covered with foam.\n\n And the Fisherman, watching above\u2014above,\n And _wanting_ to pull them in,\n Could only wait till the fish were too tired\n To move a tail, or a fin.\n\n Then, twice, on the face of the placid pool,\n He dropped the star from on high;\n And, one by one, drew the Fishes up,\n To shine each night in the Sky!\n\n And the moral\u2019s plain, of this tale (your tail,\n If you are a bear, or a fish),\n _Don\u2019t fume and splash and disturb your pool,\u2014\n And you\u2019ll probably get your wish!_\n\n\u201cLittle Bear liked to hear it, but Cassiopeia could see that it wasn\u2019t\nreally any comfort to him, and she was at her wit\u2019s end to know what to\ndo.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey ought to have thought it was a Comet,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cIt was stupid in them, but they never once thought of them,\u201d said the\nPrincess.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t you know, it is like that sometimes,\u201d said Phyllisy, \u201cthe most\nprobable thing you forget all about.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat was the way with them,\u201d agreed the Princess. \u201cThey thought of\neverything else, and the two days were almost gone when Boreas sent word\nthat he couldn\u2019t possibly wait any longer; but he wouldn\u2019t blow the\nclouds clear off\u2014only break them up, and send them flying about; so\nperhaps it wouldn\u2019t be noticed that the Star was gone.\n\n\u201c\u2018That won\u2019t do at all,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018We can\u2019t take chances like that.\nBut what can we do?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018The next best thing,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018We must get another star as\nnear like it as we can find.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I have one the same color; but it\u2019s not the right size,\u2019 said Cepheus.\n\n\u201c\u2018Let me have it,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018I\u2019ll try to match it.\u2019\n\n\u201cShe took it from him; and the Star People came, one by one, and turned\ntheir backs to her, and she held up the star that was the right color by\nthose that were the right size and in a place where they wouldn\u2019t be\nmissed; and you never would believe how many sizes and colors there\nwere! It was enough to drive one crazy, and she was ready to give up in\ndespair. At last she went back to one she had rejected before, on the\nback of Perseus\u2019 elbow.\n\n\u201c\u2018It isn\u2019t right,\u2019 she said, \u2018but it\u2019s the best there is.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, that\u2019s not so bad,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018A man on horseback wouldn\u2019t\nnotice the difference!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s a very poor joke!\u2019 snapped Cassiopeia\u2014her nerves were quite\nfrazzled. \u2018Come, Little Bear!\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd Little Bear came to her, and they fastened the false star on his\ntail; and he let them do it, quite quietly, though he felt as if his\nheart would break\u2014and so ashamed! It was almost worse than no star at\nall, and seemed like trying to cheat the sailors who trusted him.\n\n\u201cAll that night and the next and still another night, Boreas blew and\nshouted through his trumpet, and the clouds swept back and forth,\nwhirling and tumbling, while Little Bear stood at his post, wheeling\nslowly around the false star, with his head drooped low and the silver\nglint all gone from his soft fur, and his heart almost breaking,\nwhenever, through the rifts of the racing clouds, he saw the ships\nflying before the gale\u2014sailing to all quarters of the world.\n\n\u201cAnd the other Star People were almost as unhappy as he was, because\nthey loved him, and because such a dreadful thing had happened, and\nsomebody must have been so very wicked. By the time the third night was\ngone they felt that it couldn\u2019t possibly go on that way any longer; and\nevery one went to sleep, perfectly worn out with trying to think what\nthey could do, and how they could comfort Little Bear, if nothing else\ncould be done.\n\n\u201cOrion was just in his first sound sleep, when a big, jolly voice\ncalled: \u2018Are you all asleep there? Wake up, Orion!\u2019\n\n\u201cOrion turned around, and there was Old Sol himself, fairly beaming with\nhappiness and good humor, and\u2014what do you think?\u2014in his hand he held up\nthe lost Pole Star!\n\n\u201c\u2018Wh-why, where did you find it?\u2019 gasped Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, this fellow had it tucked into the crook in his tail. I caught\nhim, going by, and shook him up, and out it fell. So I brought it to\nyou.\u2019\n\n\u201cThen Orion saw that Sol held in his other hand the most disreputable\nlittle Comet that ever was seen! His hair and tail\u2014what was left of\nthem\u2014were hanging in shreds. He had struggled to escape, and Sol had\nheld him. Now, scarcely enough of him was left to be worth holding\u2014just\na rag! and his head seemed positively shriveled up.\n\n\u201c\u2018For the love o\u2019 the Law!\u2019 exclaimed Orion, \u2018what\u2019s that? A Comet! And\nwe never once thought of it. Give me that star.\u2019 He fairly snatched it\nfrom Sol\u2019s hand, and started, as fast as he could run, North, waking\nevery one as he ran, calling: \u2018We\u2019ve found the Pole Star!\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Comet seemed to think this was a good chance to escape, and\nwriggled cautiously between Old Sol\u2019s fingers. \u2018Oh, no!\u2019 said Sol.\n\u2018You\u2019ll stay with me, where you won\u2019t do any more mischief.\u2019 And he put\nhim in his pocket, and followed Orion, as fast as he could, to the\nNorth.\n\n\u201cAnd when he came in sight, Little Bear was just awake, with everybody\ncrowding around him, and talking to him so fast he couldn\u2019t understand\nwhat it was all about. But when he saw his own Star once more\u2014then he\nknew! And Old Sol laughed to see Little Bear (who had been so patient\nand uncomplaining when he was most unhappy) give his tail such a switch\nand jerk that it sent the false star flying off\u2014nobody knew where, nor\ncared! They kept right on talking\u2014all at once, and nobody listening to\nanybody else\u2014and saying how stupid it was in them not to have thought of\nthe Comet.\u201d\n\n(\u201cAnd it was,\u201d said Pat, under her breath; but Phyllisy shook her head\nat her\u2014not to interrupt.)\n\n\u201cCassiopeia cried, a very little, while they fastened the Sailor\u2019s Star\nonce more on Little Bear\u2019s tail; and the good old Dragon said,\nanxiously: \u2018Be thure you fathen it _thtrong_!\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd Little Bear quivered and trembled with delight, his eyes sparkling,\neven in the sunshine; and then\u2014everybody began to be so sleepy they\ncouldn\u2019t hold their eyes open. So they all hurried back to their places\nand faded away again; while old Sol, with the Comet in his pocket out of\nharm\u2019s way, glowed brighter and brighter with pleasure.\n\n\u201cBut when night fell, calm and cloudless, who was so proud as Little\nBear? His eyes twinkled brighter than any stars, and his soft fur\nglittered and shone, and he held up his head bravely as he swung around\nthe Pole Star\u2014watching the ships; while the sailors on the ships said:\n\u2018How bright all the stars are to-night! The rains have cleared the air.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe next cloudy night, Little Bear sat beside Cassiopeia, in her great\njeweled chair, and she sang songs to him once more\u2014about the Fishes, and\nthe other songs he liked. Best of all, the one she couldn\u2019t sing to him\nwhen he was so unhappy, about his very own Sailor\u2019s Star:\u2014\n\n \u201cOh, how do the ships go sailing\n Over the starlit sea?\n They\u2019re sailing East,\n And they\u2019re sailing West,\n And they\u2019re sailing South,\u2014\n But they love the best,\n Where the North Star shines unfailing.\n\n \u201cOh, how do the ships go sailing\n Over the angry sea?\n The winds blow high,\n And the clouds sweep low,\n And the ship flies fast!\u2014\n But the sailors know\n Their Star still shines unfailing.\n\n \u201cAnd still the ships go sailing\n Forever, over the sea;\n For the winds will drive\n The clouds away,\n And the stars shine forth,\n And the sailors say,\n _Their_ Star for aye\u2019s unfailing!\u201d\n\n\u201c\u2018The Sta-a-ar\u2019s unfailing,\u2019\u201d sang the Kitten, after her. And they two\nsang the last few lines again, together.\n\n\u201cOh!\u201d exclaimed Miss Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cWhat is it?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cOrion\u2019s leg is gone; I\u2019ve been expecting it. A wave just went over.\u201d\n\nAnd another wave followed close, and shoved it back still higher, before\nit had time to run away out.\n\n\u201cHe doesn\u2019t mind,\u201d said the Kitten.\n\n\u201cNot a bit,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t even a likeness. And where\nare the Comets?\u201d\n\nThere wasn\u2019t a sign of one left. And that was a sign that every one else\nhad better be starting!\n\n[Illustration:\n\n ORION\u2019S DOGS AND LITTLE BEAR\n\n The name of the big dog was Sirius, and the little one was Procyon.\n And Orion himself hadn\u2019t so splendid a star as Sirius wore in his\n collar. Procyon\u2019s wasn\u2019t quite so fine, because he was smaller.\n\n \u201cAnd they\u2019ve just been over here to see Little Bear, and they\u2019re\n hurrying to catch up with Orion and be in their own places,\u201d said\n Phyllisy.\n]\n\n\n\n\n IV\n OLD SOL\u2019S MENAGERIE\n\n\nBecause she had said she would, and they had come expressly when the\ntide was out, the Princess didn\u2019t wait to be asked; she only looked to\nsee what kind of an Ocean it was, while the others hunted for a pointed\nshell like the one she used before\u2014and it was a cool blue one, with\nlittle waves running on it and cloud shadows moving across.\n\nThen she took the shell that Miss Phyllisy brought, with the Others\nfollowing; and perhaps it was the very one that flew out of her hand!\nAnyway, it was exactly like it; it could have been brought back by the\nsea, and that was a sign that it was lucky to draw more Star People on\nthe sand.\n\nThey chose a place to begin, and the Princess drew a circle around her,\nas large as she could reach from the middle; and it was surprisingly\nround\u2014when it wasn\u2019t mechanical. Then she came to the line of it and\nreached over and drew another, larger, circle just so far outside; then\nshe made marks\u2014little neat ones\u2014on the edge, to have it even, and drew\nlines across to divide it into spaces; and there would be twelve. And\nthe Princess was inside, drawing, and the Others were outside, watching\nto see what it was going to be\u2014like a Bewitchment, with nobody speaking.\nFor each time Pat started to say: \u201cWhatever is it?\u201d Prudence said:\n\u201cDon\u2019t speak!\u201d and she stopped. But the Kitten lay on the sand, propped\non her elbows, watching and making a song for herself, inside, until the\nPrincess was ready to talk.\n\nAs she drew the last line across, that made twelve spaces, she began,\nsing-song: \u201cWalk right up, ladies and gentlemen! The greatest show in\nSkyland is now ready to begin. Unrivaled aggregation of animals and\ngalaxy of talented artists. Old Sol\u2019s Menagerie, in Sky-Language called\nthe Zodiac. Something between a zo\u00f6logical garden and a circus, and\nbetter than both put together\u2014\u201d She stopped and laughed, teasing with\nher eyes.\n\n\u201cWhat does it mean?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m going to show you. These are twelve great cages that make a\nsplendid ring all around the Sky\u2014Houses, the Star People call them. They\nthink it sounds better; but they aren\u2019t in the least like either cages\nor houses; they\u2019re more like a _place_; and it isn\u2019t a flat circle like\nthis. It\u2019s that way in Starland. You can\u2019t really describe it, because\nit\u2019s so different; but we can draw it this way, and call it what we\nlike.\u201d The Princess stooped down and began to draw: \u201cIn this first cage,\nSol keeps the Ram that had the Golden Fleece, that they took away from\nhim, to take such care of! And now that he\u2019s a Star-Ram, he has it back\nand takes care of it himself.\u201d\n\n\u201cSo Draco needn\u2019t watch it any more,\u201d observed Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cThe Ram likes it much better this way,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cAnd here is\nhis name, like a doorplate on his house.\u201d She made a funny little mark\nin the corner of the space. \u201cWherever you see that mark, Beloveds, it\u2019s\nthe Sign of the Ram; and it looks like his curving horns. Next door is a\ngreat white Bull. One time he was grazing in a meadow where some\nchildren were playing. He was very gentle, and let them wind garlands of\nflowers around his horns. At last, one of them climbed on his back, and\naway he went with her and swam over the sea. Did you ever see such\nremarkable, lofty horns?\u201d All the time she was drawing.\u2014\u201cHere\u2019s the sign\nof his House, and here go his stars.\u201d The Others had stars collected,\nand when they had finished the Bull, she went on: \u201cIn this House are the\nGemini Brothers, twin boys who do boxing and wrestling, and\nground-and-lofty tumbling. Wonderful singers they are, too, Castor and\nPollux, and especial friends of all sailors. They were great sailors\nthemselves, and once drove all the wicked pirates out of the \u00c6gean Sea.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Star ones?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cNo; the real ones. We want two beautiful pebbles for the stars that\nthey wear in their helmets. And up here\u201d\u2014the Princess whirled across\u2014\u201cin\nthis last House that brings it around the circle are two more twins\u2014the\nFishes that Cassiopeia sang about to Little Bear. They can have only\nsmall stars, because they were discontented.\u201d\n\nWhen they were done the Princess turned back to the place where she left\noff.\n\n\u201cIn this cage at the North is a Crab; and in the cage exactly opposite\nis a Goat, but not a common goat. He is a Sea-Goat\u2014like this, with a\nkind of fish tail.\u201d She left the Crab, and drew the Goat to show. \u201cThese\ntwo were once impertinent to Old Sol; and now he has them in his\nMenagerie; and I\u2019m glad of it! Aren\u2019t you, Kitten?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat did they do?\u201d asked Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s poetry,\u201d said the Princess. She stopped drawing and clasped her\nhands around her knees, sitting in the middle of the Zodiac to say the\npoetry; and the Others sitting outside to listen.\n\n A kindly gentleman was Mr. Sol.\n He sallied forth one day, to take a stroll,\n Saying: \u201cThis morning I will make my goal,\n The South Pole.\u201d\n\n With smiles for all he met, and greetings gay,\n He southward bent his steps,\u2014nor would delay\n Because he saw, directly in his way,\n A Billy-Goat stood at bay!\n\n \u201cYez can\u2019t go anny farther!\u201d cried the Goat.\n \u201cThe language on that sign I\u2019d have yez note:\n \u2018The passage South is closed.\u2019 Kape on yer coat!\n That\u2019s the _Law_! Ye\u2019d orter know\u2019t!\u201d\n\n His language rude could only cause surprise,\n And Sol advanced. Oh, who\u2019d believe his eyes!\n With lowered head Bill rushes\u2014and Sol lies,\n Knocked flat!\u2014sprawly-wise!\n\n Old Sol arose and said: \u201cI\u2019d have you learn\u201d\n (So grieved his rage had scarce begun to burn)\n \u201cThere\u2019s still a Pole to visit; and I\u2019ll turn\n To the North! Your Pole I spurn!\u201d\n\n But as he walked and thought upon his wrong,\n His rage waxed hotter, his resolve more strong.\n \u201cThe next who thwarts me won\u2019t be happy long!\n Just let him try!\u2014I think he\u2019ll change his song!\u201d\n\n So striding northward, with his face ablaze,\n He overtook a Crab, who\u2019d paused to gaze\n Where stood the Pole. His courteous amaze\n Sol\u2019s wrath allays.\n\n Now, even as the Goat was set to guard\n The Southern Pole, and visitors retard,\n The task of Mr. Crab was just as hard:\n The North he barred.\n\n But what\u2019s the use of knock-down argument,\n When courtesy will answer your intent?\n If with a little tact \u2019tis wisely blent.\n Why break a will, that may as well be _bent_?\n\n \u201cShall we not walk together, sir?\u201d he said.\n Sol\u2014still determined, though his rage was fled\u2014\n Agreed, if to the Pole his friend\u2019s path led.\n Waving his claw, the Crab said: \u201cStraight ahead!\u201d\n\n[Illustration:\n\n \u201cSHALL WE NOT WALK TOGETHER, SIR?\u201d\n]\n\n But wily Mr. Crab did not confess\n (And Sol was far too much engrossed to guess,\n So pleasant and straightforward his address),\n He _backward walked_,\u2014like all crabs\u2014none the less!\n\n They strolled together down the road awhile\n With jest and chat, that might the way beguile;\n Then bade adieu. And then Sol saw the wile\n That turned him from his purpose with a smile!\n\n He had not noticed that they backward walked,\n Because the Crab so pleasantly had talked.\u2014\n Thus, twice in his ambition was he balked:\n The Goat had felled him\u2014and the Crab had mocked!\n\n Since then, he\u2019s fixed a limit for his stroll;\n He never tries to go around the Pole.\n Deceit and rudeness worry Mr. Sol\n Past his control!\n\n\u201cThat is the poetry,\u201d said the Princess, \u201cand _this_ is very truly true:\nOld Sol makes a visit and spends a little while every year in each of\nthe Houses of the Zodiac. But when he comes to the farthest North\u2014which\nis the Crab\u2014in the Summer, he turns back and goes South until he comes\nto the Goat\u2019s House, which is the farthest South, in the Winter; then he\nturns and comes back, and so forever and always.\u201d\n\n\u201cWon\u2019t they let him go?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cHe doesn\u2019t give them a chance to prevent. Now he knows it\u2019s a Rule of\nthe Sky he obeys it even before he comes to the place they say he\nmustn\u2019t pass.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut they might have told him politely,\u201d said Phyllisy. \u201cIt means\nsomething behind, doesn\u2019t it, Dearie?\u2014just plainly true without anything\naround it?\u201d\n\nThe Princess laughed suddenly, because Miss Phyllisy was so earnest and\nso funny; but she nodded, \u201cYes.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd the \u2018House\u2019 just means that part of the sky where they are?\u201d\n\nThe Princess nodded again.\n\n\u201cAnd Old Sol has put a Bewitchment around it so they can\u2019t get\nout\u2014instead of bars,\u201d Phyllisy added, going back of her own accord to\nthe make-believe, because she preferred it. And that was one of the ways\nshe was wise. What was plainly true could very well wait until she was\nolder and had more time to think about it.\n\n\u201cHere, in Mr. Crab\u2019s House, Sol keeps a beehive.\u201d The Princess went back\nto her drawing where she had left off the Crab to draw the Goat; and the\nOthers found very tiny yellow shells that looked like them, for the\nbees.\n\n\u201cNow, here is a Lion who doesn\u2019t have to be any lion in particular\nbecause he\u2019s so splendid just being himself. He\u2019s like \u2018Terrible as an\narmy with banners,\u2019 not because he\u2019s terrible, but he\u2019s like a heraldry\nlion. Right next him is Mlle. Virgo, very ladylike and not a bit\nafraid.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat is she for?\u201d asked Pat, while the Princess was drawing her.\n\n\u201cShe does \u2018poses plastiques\u2019\u2014which means that she looks perfectly lovely\nbeing all kinds of statuary on top of a pedestal, and when she doesn\u2019t\ndo that she does remarkable juggling with a pair of great scales that\nare carefully kept in the cage next hers, so they shan\u2019t get out of\norder.\u201d\n\n\u201cCould they weigh anything?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cYes, indeed! The Star People may go in and be weighed on them, if Mlle.\nVirgo goes with them. But the Scorpion really does the weighing\u2014puts on\nthe weights for her\u2014because she\u2019s so ladylike. He lives next door, on\nthe other side, and he\u2019s very handy with his claws.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Orion one?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cThe Orion one,\u201d said the Princess, beginning in the middle to draw him.\n\u201cSomebody will have to find a splendiferous red something for the star\nhe wears above his fiery heart.\u201d She drew down his body into his\ncurled-up tail; then she put on his lobstery claws.\n\n\u201cAnd this gentleman is Mr. Sagittarius, with a head and body like a man\njoined to the body of a horse; and he is a better shot with a bow and\narrow than a Red Indian. Then, there\u2019s the Goat\u2014we\u2019ve done, and the\nFishes\u2014we\u2019ve done. And there\u2019s just one more House I haven\u2019t told you\nabout. An old man lives in it. He\u2019s like Orion in one thing, he\u2019s very\nfond of gardening. But he hasn\u2019t any garden, only a watering-pot. And\nthat\u2019s the part of him we\u2019ll draw, because that\u2019s where he wears his\nstars.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou\u2019re making two spouts,\u201d said the Kitten.\n\n\u201cBecause it has. If you want to _garden_, and have no garden but a\nwatering-pot, you can\u2019t have too many spouts. The Ancients said the two\nstreams that flowed from it watered all the gardens of the world.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt must have felt funny to be an Ancient,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cWhy?\u201d asked Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cWith those queer ideas in them,\u201d said Pat.\n\nThe Princess looked around the Zodiac ring, to see what was left out;\nand it was all done but signs in the Fishes, and three more she had not\nput in when she made them. She put them in now, in the corners of the\nHouses. So it was finished; and it had taken a good while\u2014drawing and\ntalking and starring them all; but, because she wasn\u2019t tired, they moved\nalong a little farther and began afresh.\n\nIt was a tremendous man, with lumpy arms and legs; and that was\nHercules, the strongest person in the Sky.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve heard about him,\u201d said Pat. \u201cHe killed lions, and strangled some\nsnakes when he was just a little baby in his cradle\u2014immense ones; he\nmust have been always strong.\u201d\n\n\u201cI suppose he inherited it,\u201d said the Kitten\u2014very grown-up.\n\n\u201cJust hear the child!\u201d said Miss Phyllisy. \u201cWhat does that mean, Kit?\u201d\n\n\u201cI know,\u201d the Kitten insisted. \u201cHe _could_ do it.\u201d\n\n\u201cCourse he could!\u201d said the Princess; \u201cand because of _that_. He came of\na very fine family\u2014none better. He was a God of the Greeks.\u201d\n\n\u201cA _God_!\u201d exclaimed Pat. \u201cDo _you_\u2014_mean_\u2014to _say_\u2014that _Hercules_ was\na _God_?\u201d\n\n\u201cI do,\u201d said the Princess; and, \u201cOne of those Ancients, you know, Pat,\u201d\nexplained Phyllisy. But Pat paid no attention.\n\n\u201cWell! For pitysakes! _Hercules_\u2014a God!\u201d she said once more.\n\nAnd that was all; and nobody will ever know why it surprised her so.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s what he was,\u201d said the Princess, drawing away, very\nindustrious,\u2014\u201ca demi, to begin with, and they made him a whole one. He\nwas highly cultivated and accomplished, besides being so strong. But he\nhad a great deal of trouble, and had to work very hard; and altogether\nit quite broke him down. It made him always on the lookout for\nunfortunate signs. Now that he\u2019s a Star Person, he isn\u2019t particularly\nintellectual, but he is perfectly amiable; and that is a great deal to\nbe thankful for, when you consider how strong he is.\u201d And by that time\nhe was ready for his stars.\n\nMiss Phyllisy suddenly thought of something.\n\n\u201cOh, Dearie!\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cThere\u2019s somebody you never drew.\u201d\n\n\u201cWho is that, Miss Phyllisy?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Big Bear. You never talk about him.\u201d\n\nThe Princess made little marks in the sand, all in a row, that didn\u2019t\nmean anything. When she spoke it was in a slow, thinking-it-out way:\n\u201cThere is something curious about that Bear, that makes him _not_ do the\nthings the other Star People do; and this is it:\u201d\u2014she spoke very\nimpressively,\u2014\u201cThe Great Bear doesn\u2019t know whether he\u2019s a bear or a\ndipper!\u201d\n\n\u201cOh-h!\u201d cried the Others.\n\n\u201cWhat _do_ you mean?\u201d asked Phyllisy.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n CASSIOPEIA\n\n \u201cOf course it isn\u2019t a _likeness_,\u201d said the Princess, putting a quirl\n on her crown, \u201cbut you can tell something by it. And do you think\n Cassiopeia looks like the kind of person who would boast of her own\n beauty?\u201d\n\n The Others looked at her critically.\u2014\u201cShe looks to me more domestic,\u201d\n said Phyllisy. \u201cDid she?\u201d\n\n \u201cSome old mythologies _say_ she did, but it was truly Andromeda\u2019s\n beauty she was so proud of. The trouble was, Cassiopeia wasn\u2019t\n satisfied with knowing in her own heart that her child was the\n loveliest thing the sun shone on; she talked about it. And at last\n it came to the Sea Nymphs\u2019 ears. They heard in all the waves\u2014like\n coming out of a shell\u2014\u2018Andromeda is fairer than the Sea Nymphs:\n Cassiopeia says so,\u2019\u2014and off they went to their father, crying:\n \u2018Vengeance, Father Neptune, upon the impious Cassiopeia!\u2019 That was\n the way they talked, only a great deal more of it. And rather than\n hear them whining and teasing he consented to punish Cassiopeia. She\n and Cepheus were obliged to chain Andromeda to a rock on the\n seacoast to be devoured by a horrible sea monster; and that would\n have been the end of her and her beauty if Perseus hadn\u2019t come to\n the rescue.\u201d\n\n Then they stopped talking about that, because it was time to put on\n Cassiopeia\u2019s stars.\n]\n\n\u201cHe\u2019s confused,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cYou see, before he was a Star\nPerson he was a performing bear, and in one of his tricks\u2014the best\none\u2014he stood on his head so much it affected his brain. Now he is a Star\nPerson, and he\u2019s quite harmless, but he thinks perhaps he\u2019s a Dipper.\nAnd, of course, when he thinks that he can\u2019t go about or talk; and\nthere\u2019s nothing for him to dip, so he doesn\u2019t lead a very amusing life.\u201d\n\n\u201cWouldn\u2019t the Star People let him go with them?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cCertainly they would\u2014be glad to. But he doesn\u2019t want to. And they let\nhim have his way. They call him \u2018Major\u2019; and that pleases him when he\nthinks he\u2019s a bear, and when they see he has a \u2018dipper-fit\u2019 they don\u2019t\ntalk to him at all, because he doesn\u2019t like it.\u201d\n\n\u201cI should think they\u2019d be glad,\u201d said Pat. \u201cWhat could they talk about?\u201d\n\n\u201cNothing intelligent,\u201d agreed the Princess, \u201cso they let him alone, to\nbe happy in his own way.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs Little Bear his child?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cNo, Kitten. They aren\u2019t related; they only both happen to be bears and\nneighbors. Major never goes away from his place\u2014almost never,\u201d she\ncorrected herself. Then she stopped, and began again, talking to\nherself. \u201cThere was once\u2014such a time as they had\u2014\u201d She shook her head,\nbut she did\u2019t say any more.\n\n\u201cAren\u2019t you going to tell it?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cBimeby,\u201d said the Princess, suddenly energetic. \u201cI\u2019m going to draw him\nnow.\n\n\u201cNow, my Hearties! How\u2019s that for a bear? and just crying for stars.\nLook alive! and see what you\u2019ll see when he has them on.\u201d\n\nThey placed his pebbles, and seven were especially large, and all the\ntime Pat kept saying: \u201cI don\u2019t see anything. What is it?\u201d\u2014and all the\nPrincess would say was, \u201cLook at him hard,\u2014his stars,\u2014never mind his\nlegs.\u201d And then Phyllisy saw something that made her laugh. \u201cOh, Dearie!\nIs that what made you think of it?\u2014The Dipper\u2014what he thinks?\u201d\n\n\u201cS-sh,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\u201cWhat are you laughing at? Tell me now,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t you see, Pat?\u201d explained Phyllisy. \u201cIt\u2019s the old Dipper we always\nknew\u2014part of it is. I never thought of it\u2019s being the same.\u201d\n\n\u201cTwo names for it?\u201d asked Pat, looking at the Princess.\n\nShe nodded. \u201cI know another one.\u201d\n\n\u201cAren\u2019t you going to tell it?\u201d\n\n\u201cBimeby,\u201d she said again, just as she had said it before.\n\nAnd that was drawing enough, and no time for a story, but much better\nfor a scamper on the beach, along the edge of the waves that had stopped\ngoing out and were running all the time nearer.\n\n\n\n\n V\n MAJOR\n\n\nExactly far enough to be convenient to sit down for a while was the old\ngreat Wreck that had been there for years and years and years.\n\nSo there was only a part of it left, pushed deep in the sand, and sand\ninside, because the sea had eaten away the rest. And it was pale and\ngray-bleached where it stood up toward the sky, but underneath dark and\nsodden, with long seaweed weeping off into the water\u2014back and forth\u2014back\nand forth\u2014forever.\n\nGoing up by the rocks on the other side, some strong timbers laid over\nmade a bridge across into the broken place where her ribs showed. There\nwere pale waves churning, flat, in and out among the rocks and below the\nbridge when they crossed over and came out on the old gray deck with the\nold black capstan standing in the middle of it; and everywhere around\nthere was water. The Ocean was much larger from here than it was when\nthey were walking on the sand; so large that any ship in the whole wide\nworld _might_ have come sailing across it\u2014and a fair wind blowing. The\nPrincess looked for several minutes, to see if there was coming the\nfinest ship afloat. And there was not; but she hadn\u2019t expected it,\nbecause she knew it was not there.\n\n\u201cNow is it a suitable time to tell it?\u201d asked Pat.\n\nAnd the Princess thought it was, while they rested, sitting on the\ntilting deck, with the sea running in and out in the dark hollow place\nunder it.\n\n\u201cYou know how you feel about something that is _always there_,\u201d she\nbegan; \u201ca tree on the lawn, or a church steeple, or something you take\nfor granted and expect to see when you look for it. You don\u2019t look the\nfirst thing in the morning to see if it has gone away in the night.\n\n\u201cThat was the way with Major. The Star People were so used to seeing him\nin his place that they thought very little about him.\n\n\u201cIt was rather cloudy one morning when it was time to fade away, and it\npromised to be more cloudy by night. The Star People had plans for what\nthey wanted to do; and they waked up, quite full of their own affairs.\nSo, though each one of them in Major\u2019s neighborhood had a feeling that\nsomething was strange and lacking, they didn\u2019t think enough about it to\nrealize what it was. And it wasn\u2019t until Cepheus said suddenly: \u2018Why,\nwhere\u2019s Major?\u2019 that they saw that he was gone, and that was what they\nmissed.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, what do you thuppoth pothethed him?\u2019 said Draco.\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019ve no idea,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018But we must find him and bring him\nback. We can\u2019t let the silly old thing go wandering about, nobody knows\nwhere. Perseus!\u2019 she called. \u2018You and Andromeda come and help.\u2019\n\n\u201cThey were so interested in some scheme of their own they weren\u2019t\nnoticing what was going on. But as soon as they did, they were just as\nmuch concerned as anybody, \u2018Major gone!\u2019 they said. \u2018Why, where can he\nbe?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I thee him!\u2019 called Draco, excitedly. He had flown up to look about.\nNow he dropped again. \u2018He\u2019th almotht to Orion\u2019th garden, and going\nThouth ath fatht ath ever he can!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Run, Perseus. You\u2019re young,\u2019 said Cassiopeia; and off he started, with\nAndromeda after him. She and Perseus very easily ran faster than the\nother Star People who followed: Cepheus and Cassiopeia, with Draco, half\nflopping his wings and half running on his short crooked legs, like a\ndachshund\u2019s, and after them Hercules and Little Bear. Hercules picked\nhim up and put him on his shoulder, and came after the others\u2014all racing\ndown toward the Southern Sky, to find Major and bring him back home.\n\n\u201cCassiopeia was not much of a runner; but Hercules came up and put his\nhand under one arm, and Cepheus put his under the other, to help her\nalong, so they made pretty good speed; though, of course, not so good as\nPerseus and Andromeda. So they weren\u2019t surprised, when they finally came\nin sight of Major, to see that the young people had caught up with him,\nand they and Orion were going along by his side.\n\n\u201cFor Major wasn\u2019t noticing them, nor stopping to listen to their talk.\nHe kept straight on, lifting his great paws high and throwing them out\nas he trotted\u2014not as a bear usually runs, and not getting along so very\nfast, either.\n\n\u201cWhen he was actually in sight Cassiopeia declared she couldn\u2019t go\nanother step without resting. So she sat down; and Perseus, who saw\nthem, came racing back with Andromeda after him, of course.\n\n\u201c\u2018Guess what he thinks!\u2019 he called, when he came within hearing\ndistance. \u2018He thinks he\u2019s a wagon!\u2019 cried Andromeda, in the same breath.\n\n\u201c\u2018A _wagon_!\u2019 said everybody.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, he does,\u2019 said Andromeda. \u2018Orion ran out after him when he went\nby the garden, and Major made him look out for the wheels. He thinks his\nlegs are wheels, and he will run over any one who\u2019s in the way.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Did you ever hear more?\u2019 said Cepheus. \u2018I\u2019d like to know how such an\nidea came into his addled old head.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019d just like to know how to put it _out_!\u2019 said Cassiopeia.\n\n\u201c\u2018How\u2019ll you stop him, if you don\u2019t?\u2019 asked Hercules. \u2018He\u2019ll keep on\nforever\u2014now he\u2019s started.\u2019 And that was perfectly reasonable, certainly,\nand quite observant for a person who didn\u2019t pretend to be bright.\n\n\u201c\u2018I can thtop him,\u2019 said Draco.\n\n\u201c\u2018How?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018You wait and thee. We\u2019ll catch up with him thoon. He doethn\u2019t go very\nfatht.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe Princess stopped, and looked off, over the sea. Then she looked back\nat the Others, all waiting for her to go on.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s terribly exciting, Dearie,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cThen what happened?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cBy this time Cassiopeia was ready to go on, and they started once more.\nThey could see that Orion still talked and argued as he kept on by\nMajor\u2019s side, with the two dogs running about them both; but Major never\nonce glanced at him or his dogs, and kept up his curious gait.\n\n\u201cAnd\u2014do you believe?\u2014now that they knew what his idea was, his legs did\nseem to make a circular motion; and they couldn\u2019t help thinking that he\ndid look a little like a great clumsy wagon; but they wouldn\u2019t, one of\nthem, have owned it to the others!\n\n\u201c\u2018Now what do you think of that?\u2019 asked Orion, stopping to let them come\nup with him. \u2018He\u2019s started, and he may go forever!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s what _I_ say,\u2019 observed Hercules.\n\n\u201c\u2018Draco says he can stop him,\u2019 said Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, can he?\u2019 said Orion. \u2018All right. Go ahead. It\u2019s more than I can\ndo.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019m _pretty thure_ I can,\u2019 said Draco, as he flopped along\u2014and they\nstood aside to let him pass, he took so much room; \u2018but you\u2019ll have to\nthtand by what I thay. It\u2019ll take diplomathy.\u2019\n\n\u201cThen they all followed after to see what his diplomacy was, and how he\nwould use it. And when he came up with Major he didn\u2019t stop; he didn\u2019t\neven seem to notice him, but kept flopping along until all but three\ncoils of his tail had passed him. Then he stopped abruptly, as if he\nwere very much surprised. \u2018Why, I thought you were a wagon,\u2019 he said.\n\u2018But where are your hortheth?\u2019\n\n\u201cMajor held one foot suspended in the air for a moment, and they thought\nhe might stop. But it was only an instant; then he went on.\n\n\u201cDraco raised his voice higher: \u2018Don\u2019t you know, you thilly, a wagon\ncan\u2019t go without thomething to draw it?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then how did he get here?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018S-s-sh!\u2019 said every one.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now he\u2019th thpoiled everything!\u2019 complained Draco. And he flopped right\ndown in the road\u2014but Major kept straight on.\n\n\u201c\u2018No, he hasn\u2019t,\u2019 said Andromeda, encouragingly. \u2018Don\u2019t you mind. That\nwas fine! I know how to manage.\u2019 Then she ran on until she was a little\nahead of Major. And she looked at him, very hard, and stooped down and\nlooked at his legs. Then she called back, over his head:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018It\u2019s running downhill; but it will stop now. It\u2019s beginning to go up.\u2019\n\n[Illustration:\n\n \u201cWHY, I THOUGHT YOU WERE A WAGON,\u201d HE SAID, \u201cBUT WHERE ARE YOUR\n HORTHETH?\u201d\n]\n\n\u201cSure enough, it did begin to curve up just there; and Major lifted one\nfoot\u2014and put it down, heavily; then he swung the other around wildly\u2014and\nthey all crowded near, and said: \u2018There! It\u2019s stopping. It can\u2019t run\nup-hill.\u2019 And the next minute Major sat down with a hard _thump_, not\nvery far from the edge of the Zodiac. And if you don\u2019t believe he was a\ntired old Bear, you try it yourself!\u201d\n\nThe Others giggled; but they believed it without interrupting. And the\nPrincess went on: \u201cWhen I told you about the old man in the Zodiac, I\ndidn\u2019t tell you this: besides his watering-pot, he has a great\nreputation for giving wise advice. So when the Star People are in any\ndifficulty they go and consult Aquarius. Or they would go; but when he\nonce begins to talk he goes on _forever_; and they are so tired with it,\nand it is so impossible to stop him without being rude, that they are\nrather more likely to say to some one else, \u2018Why don\u2019t you go and ask\nAquarius?\u2019 than they are to go themselves.\n\n\u201cWhen Major sat down _hard_, he was not far from Aquarius\u2019 House, and\nthe old man came to its limit to see what was going on, but the Star\nPeople pretended they didn\u2019t see him, because they didn\u2019t want him to\nbegin talking.\n\n\u201cCassiopeia was the person who discovered that they were out of one\ntrouble only to be in another. They had stepped aside a little, to be\nout of Major\u2019s hearing, and everybody\u2014except Cassiopeia\u2014was saying how\ngood it was he had stopped. Draco just observed complacently, for the\nthird time: \u2018I don\u2019t know how I happened to think of it. It theemed to\n_come_ to me,\u2019 when Cassiopeia\u2019s voice broke in on them, very cold and\ndepressing: \u2018It\u2019s a pity it came so soon. Why didn\u2019t you turn him around\nfirst?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Turn him around?\u2019 said Cepheus. \u2018What for?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What is the first Rule of the Sky?\u2019 asked Cassiopeia, and they all\nrecited in unison:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018A Place for Everything; and Everything in its Place.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018There _he_ is,\u2019 and she pointed to Major, just\n_sitting_ exactly as he dropped, \u2018and _there\u2019s_ his place!\u2019 and she\nwaved her arm toward the North. \u2018How are you going to get him there?\u2019\n\n\u201cThen they were in a pickle! Major had always liked Andromeda, and she\ntried to coax him. But he wouldn\u2019t pay the slightest attention when she\ntalked.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe thinks he\u2019s a Wagon, just the same, if he has stopped,\u201d said\nPhyllisy.\n\n\u201cOf course,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cSo it was no use to talk to him. Then\nthey tried to push him and pull him around; but he shook them off, and\neven growled as no one had heard him growl before. Besides that, he was\nnaturally an extremely large bear, and being a Dipper, with nothing to\ndip, and doing absolutely nothing else, had made him grow fat. Even if\nhe had allowed them, they could hardly have moved him all that way. And\ncertainly not without Hercules\u2019 help. All this time he had stood aside,\nsaying nothing, though they hadn\u2019t noticed it, they were so busy with\nMajor himself. At last Orion almost suggested setting his dogs on him.\nBut they all said: \u2018The idea! Poor, dear, old Major!\u2019 and he said\nquickly, of course he didn\u2019t mean it. He only said they _could_. Nobody\nanswered him; nobody spoke at all for as much as a minute.\n\n\u201cThen Cassiopeia sniffed. Then she looked very hard at Hercules, and\nremarked: \u2018If I could do anything I wouldn\u2019t wait to be asked.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Who could?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t say _any one_ could,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018But if I were so\nstrong that my hands just\u2014er\u2014_swung_, and I saw that poor old lamb, far\nfrom his home, and with not sense enough to go to it, I\u2019d do the best I\ncould to take him there!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018There aren\u2019t stars enough in the Sky to make me touch him!\u2019 said\nHercules. \u2018And it isn\u2019t carryin\u2019 him I mind. Bless you, I could pick him\nup like a baby. He doesn\u2019t weigh so much.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then why don\u2019t you do it?\u2019 asked Cepheus.\n\n\u201c\u2018\u2019Tisn\u2019t lucky,\u2019 said Hercules. \u2018He isn\u2019t willing; and he\u2019s an\nInnocent. No good ever comes of crossing an idjit. I wouldn\u2019t lay so\nmuch as a finger on that loony bear\u2014unless he was willing\u2014for all you\ncould offer! No, sir-ee!\u2019\n\n\u201cThen they were just about ready to give up, or take anything that\noffered, so they weren\u2019t very reluctant to see old Aquarius, who had\nbeen beckoning to them and waving his watering-pot for some time, and\nevidently had something to say. They drew near, where he could talk to\nthem, though they groaned when they did it, for they knew he would bore\nthem almost to death.\n\n\u201c\u2018I have been strangely unable to gain your notice, although I have made\nconsiderable effort to that end,\u2019 he began, in his prosy way. \u2018I have\nwaved my hand\u2014thus\u2019 (he showed them how he had beckoned), \u2018and my\nwatering-pot\u2014thus\u2019 (and he showed them how he had waved the\nwatering-pot, and hadn\u2019t spilled a drop of water, although it had two\nspouts), \u2018but in spite of my endeavors, I have been unable to attract\nyour notice.\u2019 (They looked at each other, and sighed.) \u2018I have been thus\npersistent,\u2019 he went on, \u2018for _your_ good; not for my own\npleasure\u2014although conversation with congenial persons is always most\nagreeable to me\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Me, too,\u2019 said Draco. \u2018I jutht love to talk to my friendth.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Er\u2014exactly,\u2019 said Aquarius. \u2018But it was not merely to\nconverse\u2014agreeable as it may be to us all\u2014_all_,\u2019 he repeated, waving\nhis watering-pot benevolently. (And they looked at each other again; and\nsome of them changed their weight over onto the other foot.) \u2018No, I had\na purpose in calling you hither. I rarely act without a purpose\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What was it?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018I was about to mention it!\u2019\u2014looking at Perseus reprovingly. \u2018You\nseemed in some perplexity concerning the removal of that misguided Bear\nto his proper place. I gather that he considers himself\u2014and wishes to be\nconsidered\u2014a Wagon! A most surprising hallucination. It might be\ninteresting to consider how it could have arisen?\u2019 He looked at them, in\nturn, to see if they were inclined to consider it, but they were not,\nand stood perfectly still, without any expression in their faces, until\nHercules said: \u2018You were going to tell us something.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes. I remember to have heard something that applies exactly to such a\ncase. I am sure it will be a helpful suggestion.\u2019\n\n\u201cEvery one looked hopeful and interested, but Aquarius stopped short.\nThey waited. Then, \u2018I seem to have forgotten it for the moment. But\nnever mind\u2014it will come\u2014it will come\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, what\u2019s the use waiting?\u2019 muttered Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018It will come,\u2019 went on Aquarius, cheerfully. \u2018It is something about\nwagons\u2014and stars\u2014I am sure it is just what is needed. Ah! I have it now:\n\u201cHitch your wagon to a star!\u201d\u2014The very thing! I knew it would come,\u2019 and\nhe went right on talking; but the Star People were not listening. If\nthat was the best he could do in the way of advice, they were completely\ndiscouraged.\n\n\u201c\u2018I never heard such rubbish in my life!\u2019 said Cassiopeia, under her\nbreath. \u2018Nor I,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018I know pretty much all there is to know\nabout stars\u2014and how could you hitch a wagon to one? And if you did, what\nthen?\u2019 They all thought that was the very silliest advice that ever was\ngiven; and there was old Aquarius talking and talking\u2014and they didn\u2019t\nknow how they were to escape from him, when some one said:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Look at Major!\u2019\n\n\u201cThey all looked\u2014even Aquarius stopped with his mouth open\u2014and, what do\nyou think? With all their trying they couldn\u2019t move that foolish old\nBear one inch. But now, when they were worried to death, and trying to\nthink what to do next, and were leaving him alone\u2014\n\n\u201cAll at once he turned his great head and seemed to see for the first\ntime where he was. Then he stood up; and they held their breath to see\nwhat he would do. He stood for a moment, swaying his huge body back and\nforth; then he swung around until his nose pointed to the North, and\nstarted off at an even trot, never looking to the right nor to the left,\njust like an ordinary bear, and not in the least like a wagon or a\ndipper! And he didn\u2019t stop until he reached his very own place in the\nSky. The Star People followed him all the way on tiptoe, not daring to\nspeak for fear he would change his mind again before he reached home.\nBut I shouldn\u2019t wonder if old Aquarius went right on talking, though\nthere was not a soul left to hear him; for no one thought to say\n\u2018Good-by.\u2019\n\n\u201cThat was a long time ago, and Major still thinks he\u2019s a Dipper; but he\nknows it\u2019s no use to be a Wagon without horses. So he stays in his\nplace, and the Star People feel pretty comfortable about him. But\u201d\u2014the\nPrincess dropped her voice, and glanced up at the sky\u2014\u201cjust suppose he\never finds out about Automobiles!\u201d\n\n\u201cO-o-o-oh!\u201d said the Others, politely horrified.\n\nThen: \u201cHe won\u2019t,\u201d said Pat. \u201cAnd I know what the other name for it is,\nbesides Dipper and Great Bear. You needn\u2019t tell.\u201d\n\n\u201cI know, too,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cI\u2019d like to tell somebody,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cCome close, Kitten, and\nlet me whisper it.\u201d\n\nSo the Kitten came close, and she and the Princess found her ear\u2014warm\nand rosy under a great deal of troublesome hair\u2014and the Princess\nwhispered in it until the Kitten laughed. \u201cNow we all know, don\u2019t we?\u201d\nsaid the Princess. And they all nodded.\n\nThe waves were running away from them, up the beach, a long way beyond\nthe point of the ship where the bowsprit used to be.\n\nThe Kitten knelt down and looked through a chink in the deck, at the\nwater under it. She curved her hands each side of her eyes to shut off\nthe sunlight so she could see more plainly, and to keep her hair from\nfalling into them. \u201cO-oh! it\u2019s pretty closer,\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cLet me see,\u201d said Pat. The Kitten let her have the place, and she saw\nfor herself. She was satisfied in a minute; then she settled back on her\nheels. \u201cIt\u2019ll come just so close; then it\u2019ll go back\u2014and not any more.\nWhat makes it do that?\u201d she said.\n\n\u201cThe tide,\u201d said Miss Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cI know that,\u201d said Pat. \u201cWhat _makes_ it?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s on account of Lady Moon going by,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\u201cThat would be a different kind of Star Person. Isn\u2019t she?\u201d said\nPhyllisy.\n\n\u201cPretty different, and especially nice. This is the story of her: She is\nMother Earth\u2019s dear daughter. Long ago her mother held her close in her\narms; then Lady Moon was called away to live in Starland, and had to\nleave her mother\u2019s side. Her dim gray robes never could be seen in that\ndistant sky, so she carries a glowing lantern hung on her arm; and when\nthe slide is open and Mother Earth sees its light, she knows where her\nchild is wandering among the stars. Then her heart longs for her, and\nshe reaches out toward her, trying always to come a little nearer. If\nyou listen, you\u2019ll hear the sea sobbing, to think how far away she has\ngone.\u201d The Princess stopped talking, and tipped her head, listening.\nThey listened with her, to the waves running into the old ship\u2014and they\ntruly seemed to grow sadder and sadder; not unhappy-sad, but romantic.\n\n\u201cThat is beautiful, Dearie,\u201d said Phyllisy. \u201cIt\u2019s parable, isn\u2019t it?\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is truly true,\u201d answered the Princess. \u201cWherever the moon is,\nthere every bit of the Earth feels it, and is drawn out toward it.\u201d\n\n\u201cHard rocks and all?\u201d asked Pat, as if she never would believe it.\n\n\u201cRocks and mountains and all,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cBut they are so stiff\nthey don\u2019t give very much. But the sea yields easily, and the water\nheaps up toward the moon, and pulls away from the shore behind it; then\nwhen the moon passes on, it flattens out again. If we were down on the\nsand before every bit of the hard is covered up, I could draw something\nto show it plainer, in about two seconds, on the way back. But there\u2019s\nno time to waste.\u201d\n\nSo, without wasting any time, they left the old Wreck deep in the sand\nand water, with the waves running in from the Ocean and hurrying by\nit\u2014on to the land. And when they found a hard place, the Princess drew\nthe large round Earth with the sea humping up on the side of it toward\nthe small round moon. And she drew several moons on several sides, to\nshow how the hump would follow, and make the tide; but it was all one\nmoon\u2014only gone along a little farther. And she said it was truly the\nEarth that whirled in the middle, not the moon going around; but they\nweren\u2019t to bother about that\u2014and they didn\u2019t.\n\n\n\n\n VI\n THE BEE BABY\n\n\n\u201cThe pleasure of your company to drink tea with the Princess,\u201d it said.\nAnd the Others left all their occupations and came at once.\n\nShe was expecting them, with the little tea-table set out and ready; but\nthey might wash their hands in the Princess\u2019s own bath-room, and have\nverbena water out of a tall bottle on them, if they liked; and they\ndid\u2014a great deal.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n ANDROMEDA\n\n \u201cPoor Andromeda!\u201d said the Princess. \u201cShe must have wished she had\n been born with piggy eyes and a turned-up nose when she found what\n came of her beauty. Here she is: chained to the rock, waiting for\n the sea monster to come and devour her, but still lovely.\u201d\n\n \u201cShe isn\u2019t chained _now_?\u201d said Pat. \u201cIn the sky?\u201d\n\n \u201cDear me, no! Never, since Perseus happened along with Medusa\u2019s head\n in his wallet, and turned the sea monster into a rock. But this is\n the way they stand to be looked at,\u2014a tableau, with Perseus coming\n to the rescue, and Cassiopeia looking on, thinking what a lucky\n escape they had, and that her child is truly much lovelier than any\n Nymph whatever. But she isn\u2019t talking about it any more.\u201d\n\n \u201cPerhaps she would have thought so, just the same, if Andromeda had\n looked piggy,\u201d observed Phyllisy.\n\n \u201cVery true, Madam Owl,\u201d agreed the Princess. \u201cBut whether or no, she\n certainly has four undeniably beautiful stars to wear\u2014if anybody\n will find them for her.\u201d\n]\n\nThe \u201ctea\u201d was in a high, cool, clinking pitcher of strange colored glass\nthat let the light shine through, and it was golden and yet pinky, and\ntasted of fruits, but no kind any one could say. But they could have it\nin a teacup if they would rather. (The teapot was there too, by\ncourtesy, to look on.) The Princess sat beside the table to pour it,\nwith wide lace hanging over her arms, and coming out from under, but not\ncatching when she handled the fragile cups, because she knew how\u2014very\ndeftly.\n\nPat chose a yellow cup, with butterflies and tiny roses, and Miss\nPhyllisy took one, white and very thin, with a dragon coiled around it\nand a red curly handle; but the Kitten had hers in a tall glass like the\npitcher, and so did the Princess. And there were delicious little cakes,\nthe kind the Princess had, and never any one else. It was most\nrefreshing and restful to hot little girls out of a garden.\n\nAt last they said, \u201cNo, thank you, _really_,\u201d when she asked if they\nwould have another cup, because the cups were so small. Then the\nPrincess went over to a comfortable chair near the long window, and\nwatched the Others wandering about the room. Outside it would still be\nhot in the garden; but in the Princess\u2019s own room it was cool and\nshaded, with interesting things to see, that they loved because they had\nseen them before.\n\n\u201cSuppose there were an Indian Squaw (_and there was_),\u201d said the\nPrincess, \u201cand she was weaving a beautiful basket.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs it that basket?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cThat very identical basket you\u2019re going to hand me.\u201d\n\nSo Pat brought it to the Princess, and Phyllisy and the Kitten came too.\n\u201cAnd suppose, when she came near the top, she wove in this row of brown\npoints like the teeth of a saw\u201d\u2014their heads were close together,\nfollowing the Princess\u2019s finger with their eyes. \u201cWouldn\u2019t any one know\nthat she meant them for mountains?\u201d\n\n\u201cDid she?\u201d asked Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cShe did,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\u201cOh-h,\u201d said the Others.\n\n\u201cOr,\u201d said the Princess, \u201csuppose there were an Ancient Egyptian\u2014the\nAncientest kind\u2014who lived on the edge of a flat desert; and could\nnever\u2014alive or dead\u2014go to a mountain without crossing miles of blazing\nsand. If he happened, at the same time, to be a King (_and he did_),\nwith thousands of slaves to work for him, he might set them to work to\nbuild him a mountain. And what shape would it be when it was done?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cI know what I think,\u201d said Phyllisy, \u201cmaybe.\u201d\n\n\u201cSay it, Miss Phyllisy. I think so, too.\u201d\n\n\u201cA pyramid?\u201d\n\n\u201cWould it?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201c_What_ shape would it?\u201d repeated the Kitten.\n\nThe Princess didn\u2019t answer directly. \u201cLet\u2019s just once more suppose.\nSuppose there were a little girl, who wanted to draw the picture of a\nmountain. (_And I saw the picture._)\u201d\u2014\u201cM-m-mm\u201d purred the Kitten.\u2014\u201cHer\npencil went up one side\u2014so,\u201d the Princess slanted up with her finger,\nand the Kitten did the same with hers, \u201cand down the other,\u201d\u2014their\nfingers slid down again\u2014\u201clike a letter \u2018A,\u2019 very much spread out and\nwithout any cross-piece. Now: could there well be three kinds of people\nmore different than an Indian Squaw, an Ancient Egyptian, and a Kitten\u2014I\nmean a little girl? And yet they agree precisely about how a mountain\nought to look. Doesn\u2019t it seem as if they must be right?\u201d\n\nThe Others thought it did\u2014looking at the Pyramid picture over the glass\ncabinet. Then the Princess leaned forward, with the lace all falling\naway, and her voice grew more impressive:\u2014\n\n\u201cThere is Some One else who thinks just as they do; and she doesn\u2019t stop\nwith thinking, she takes the best of care that there shall be one\nperfect example of a truly symmetrical mountain.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh-h,\u201d said Phyllisy. \u201cWas that what it was all for? I thought it was\njust conversation.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot at all,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cIt was designed to lead you gradually\nup to that especial mountain.\u201d\n\n\u201cAre you going to tell us?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cIf you don\u2019t think it will tire you.\u201d She said it very politely, like a\nquestion. And they all shook their heads\u2014one great, vigorous shake. So\nthe Princess began to tell it:\u2014\n\n\u201cSometimes, on her voyages, the Jane Ellen passes near a coast where\nthere is a long line of white surf edging the blue water; then just as\nlong a line of white sand; and back of both, the level forest extending\nback to the line of the coast mountains. And back of this coast range\u2014so\nfar away that it looks as if it were painted flat on the pale blue sky,\nwith paint only a shade darker\u2014rises the great triangle that, Taffy\nsays, is the most satisfactory mountain in the world.\n\n\u201cAnd that is Xyntli\u2019s mountain.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid Taffy see it?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cHe did,\u201d said the Princess, \u201cfrom the sea. He sometimes thought he\nwould like to go inland and see what it was like, near at hand. But the\nJane Ellen never stopped there\u2014there was nothing to stop for\u2014and he\nnever went. And that\u2019s all he and the Jane Ellen had to do with it.\n\n\u201cIf he had left the ship and gone ashore to climb to the top of the\nrange of hills, he would have seen that they sloped down again; and far\naway, over miles of green, rolling country, the great cone of the\nmountain lifts its bare slope out of the forest. And on the southern\nside, almost at the top, his sailor eyes might have made out the hole\n(with the peak of the mountain, like a pointed hood, behind it) that\nleads down into the depths where Xyntli sleeps\u2014long naps that keep her\nyoung and beautiful in spite of her age.\n\n\u201cNo one can tell how beautiful she is, because she wraps herself in a\nveil when she looks out; but her splendid, fiery-gold hair streams out\nof it, and floats and sparkles in the wind when she stands on tiptoe\ninside, to look out and see that the mountain is just as she wants it to\nbe,\u2014an even slope from top to bottom; clean rocks, with no creeping\ngreen things and trees littering up its sides.\n\n\u201cIt must be trying to her (and she is a nervous person, too) to lie down\nto peaceful slumber for a hundred years or more, leaving her mountain\nthe pink of perfection; and to wake and look out\u2014only to see that the\nwaters that run down its sides have collected into streams, and dug\nirregular channels for themselves (like scratches on the mahogany\ntable!), and to listen and hear the winds whispering in the leaves of\nthe forest:\u2014\n\n Creeping, creeping,\n Forward stealing\u2014\n Up the mountain\n Follow, follow;\n Tiny rootlets,\n Thrusting, feeling\n Every crevice\n (S-s-ssh!),\n Silence keeping\u2014\n In the hollow\n Of her mountain\n Xyntli\u2019s sleeping!\n\n Silence keeping\u2014\n Soft gray mosses\n Cover rocks,\n And, onward creeping,\n Claim the mountain!\n Forward leaping,\n Winged seeds!\n You\u2019ll soon be peeping\n O\u2019er the rim,\n Where, in the hollow\n Of the mountain,\n Xyntli\u2019s sleeping.\n\n\u2014and then to see that the forest actually is marching up the sides of\nher own fortress! Wouldn\u2019t that be discouraging?\n\n\u201cBut Xyntli is not discouraged. Not she! She calls up her fiery snakes\nfrom below, and sends them crawling down the sides of the mountain,\nwhile she stands on the top, waving her wonderful smoky veil, and urging\nthem on.\n\n\u201cDown they glide,\u2014filling up the channels the streams have dug, hissing\nwith hatred as they swallow the streams themselves, and devouring the\nadvancing forest.\n\n\u201cAt last the mountain stands once more, smooth and polished\u2014the green\narmy driven back to the valley.\n\n\u201cThen Xyntli is satisfied, and cuddles down in her hollow for another\nnap.\n\n\u201cIt was during one of these naps\u2014after it had lasted a very long\ntime\u2014that the Bee Baby was born.\n\n\u201cYear after year, the forest had marched steadily on; so the people who\nlived in the valley seldom thought how the snakes had come down and\ndriven it back in the old days. The very old people occasionally shook\ntheir heads, and said: \u2018When Xyntli wakens she will have her own.\u2019 But\nthe young people didn\u2019t listen, and followed the forest, building their\ncurious houses fairly upon the slope of the mountain.\n\n\u201cThey were very strange houses indeed\u2014a good deal like willow\nbird-cages. In a snowstorm they would have been about as useful for a\nhouse as a mosquito net for an overcoat. But there came never a\nsnowstorm; and the house where the Bee Baby lived was built of slender\nbranches of trees, set in the ground, side by side, and interwoven with\npalm-fibre\u2014the light glimmered through it in little flecks. The roof\nwent up to a point in the middle and sloped four ways. That was woven\neven closer, of the palm leaves, so the rain couldn\u2019t come through. The\nhouse had only one room, and nearly the whole of one side was the\ndoorway\u2014with the roof extended over it a little way, like an awning.\nThere was no floor but the earth, and no door. So, when the Bee Baby\nwoke in the morning, all he had to do was to rub his big brown eyes with\nhis little brown fists, and trot through the open doorway, to be in the\nwarm sunshine, where there wasn\u2019t a fence nor a bar between him and the\nwhole enchanting world.\n\n\u201cThere was no one to watch him very closely, either, because he had no\nmother. He did have a father; but he spent a great deal of his time\ndriving a pair of drowsy oxen in a cart with two solid, wooden wheels.\nSuch a queer cart!\n\n\u201cOf course his father knew that one of the brown babies that played and\ntumbled about in the village of bird-cage huts was his. But when babies\nwear only their own shining skins to cover them, it isn\u2019t easy for a\nfather who spends most of his time driving an ox-cart to pick out his\nparticular baby.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot any clothes\u2014didn\u2019t they wear?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cMost of the little children didn\u2019t. A few of them\u2014who were very\nfashionable\u2014wore one garment. It was a straight piece of cloth that\ncovered their plump little bodies in front; the ends were gathered up in\nthe back, and tied in a bow between the shoulders. It looked very\nstylish\u2014but the Bee Baby was more comfortable. Stand up a minute,\nKitten, and I\u2019ll show you how it was.\u201d\n\nSo the Kitten came and stood before her, and she showed them how the\nfashionable little children dressed, using a piece of Chinese embroidery\nfor the straight piece of cloth. Then they settled down once more to\nlisten.\n\n\u201cIf an owl had looked through a chink in the wall, very early one\nmorning, he might have seen the Bee Baby\u2019s family\u2014his aunts and his\ngrandmother and four or five brown babies and children\u2014all asleep on\nflat straw mats on the ground. But nobody but an owl could have counted\nexactly how many there were, it was still so dark.\n\n\u201cThen the first sunbeam slipped in at a chink, and put its finger on one\nof the poles in the side of the hut. It felt its way slowly down, until\nit touched a small, dark heap at the foot of it.\n\n\u201cAnd that was the Bee Baby.\n\n\u201cHe sat up on his mat and looked around him at the other heaps.\n\n\u201cNot one of them stirred; and that was pretty stupid.\n\n\u201cThen he saw something interesting; his own little foot with the sunbeam\nresting on it, as he sat with his toes pointing straight up at the roof.\nHe looked at it for a moment, and frowned as if he were anxious. Then he\nleaned forward and felt of it.\n\n\u201cIt was a perfectly good foot; and feet are made to be walked on; and it\nis much more amusing to be walking than sitting on a mat in a dusky hut\nlike a bird-cage. That, probably, is the idea that came into the Bee\nBaby\u2019s head when he found his foot was so satisfactory; and a big dimple\ncame in his cheek, but he didn\u2019t make any noise.\n\n\u201cTo get up, he rolled over on to his face and planted his feet firmly,\nonly when they were quite solid, lifting his hands from the ground. And\nthere he was, all dressed and ready to go out. He trotted over to the\ndoorway and stopped a minute, looking out.\n\n\u201cThe hut stood on the edge of a grove of tall cocoanut trees. There were\nbananas growing among them; and vines with gorgeous orange and red\nflowers creeping everywhere. Black and spotted pigs ran grunting through\nthe vines and about the huts of the little village; it all looked clean\nand fresh in the early sunlight. The Bee Baby\u2019s was the last hut of the\nvillage, at the edge of the grove, that stretched on beyond it, up the\nslope of Xyntli\u2019s mountain.\n\n\u201cWhen one is not much over two years old, one can\u2019t think of everything,\nand the Bee Baby didn\u2019t notice that which the older people had been\nwatching for a month\u2014Xyntli was awake!\n\n\u201cAfter a sleep of two hundred years\u2014and more\u2014one night she had stirred\nand turned herself, shaking her mountain and the village on its slope.\nThe next morning a thin, gray streamer floated from the top of the cone;\nand the old people said: \u2018Xyntli\u2019s veil! Oh, when she sees\u2014\u2019 And they\nshook their heads.\n\n\u201cSince that day the veil had floated, sometimes like a broad banner,\nthen again Xyntli drew it in until it was gathered down inside. But yet,\nshe had not looked out and seen how the forests and streams were\ndefacing her mountain.\n\n\u201cAnd the Bee Baby didn\u2019t look up at the great blue triangle. The kitchen\nwas at the right of the house; and he had a feeling that said:\n\u2018Breakfast.\u2019 So those good little feet carried him over to the big stone\nwhere the women ground corn to make the flat cakes that he liked to\nnibble with his brand-new teeth. The stone oven where they were baked\nwas there too; and the Bee Baby found some cakes lying on the\ngrinding-stone. He had to stand on his tiptoes and feel over the stone,\nto find them; but he knew where to feel, and where to find a banana,\ntoo. So why should he wake the cook?\n\n\u201cWith the flat cakes in one hand and the bitten banana in the other, he\nset out, following the level sunbeams into the green grove. He knew just\nwhere he wanted to go, and trotted straight on until he came to an old\ntree.\n\n\u201cIf it had been a _tree_ that he was looking for, it wasn\u2019t much to see.\nIt hadn\u2019t a green leaf on it, and only a few scraggly branches. But he\nwas not a bird, nor a squirrel; he was a Bee Baby. And considered as a\nbeehive, it left nothing to wish for. There was the fine hollow trunk to\nstore the honey; and a round knot-hole near the ground, for the bees to\npass in and out, all day long, in sunshiny weather. And that funny brown\nbaby never seemed tired of watching them\u2014hurrying off, and coming back\ndusty with pollen, and with masses of it in the pockets on their legs,\nor laden with clear, sweet honey. Sometimes a bee lit on his finger.\nThen the wise baby sat quite still, and never brushed it off; so he\ndidn\u2019t find out that it carried a needle in its tail\u2014as sharp as its\ntemper. (But he was careless about letting the dimple come in his cheek.\nIt\u2019s a wonder the bees didn\u2019t fly in, it was so deep and red and sweet.)\n\n\u201cWhen the baby came to the tree this morning, even he could see that\nsomething was different. The bees were not going about the business of\nthe day\u2014gathering honey\u2014in their usual orderly fashion. No, indeed! They\nwere running in and out of the knot-hole, helter-skelter; and such a\nhumming as there was inside the tree!\n\n\u201cHe came close to the trunk to listen, and a gray cockatoo sat on a tree\nnear by and watched. And it\u2019s a pity there was no one else to see what a\nquaint little figure he was, with one arm clasping the tree-trunk, as\nfar as it would go, with a cake still grasped in his chubby hand, and\nhis ear pressed against the rough bark\u2014listening\u2014listening\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Buzz-z-z-z,\u2019 hummed the bees; and the baby listened, with lips\napart,\u2014serious and wondering.\n\n\u201cThen that soulless cockatoo \u2018squawked\u2019 as if it were the funniest thing\nin the world, and swung herself, head down, around the branch where she\nhad been sitting; and then worked her way into the next tree, clutching\nthe vines with beak or claw, squawking all the way. She had neither\nmanners nor dignity; and she was a grandmother, too.\n\n\u201cHer noise startled the Bee Baby so he toppled over; but he didn\u2019t mind,\nand sat where he fell, to finish his cake and to watch.\n\n\u201cThe buzzing in the hive was louder now, and there were very few bees\noutside. Then\u2014all at once\u2014they began to come out in numbers, and flew\nwildly about before they collected on a low branch near by. You can\u2019t\nimagine how many there were\u2014all in a dark cluster clinging to the vine.\nThe baby never had seen anything like it, and his eyes were round with\namazement. He got up from the hummock, to see more plainly.\n\n\u201cPerhaps because he disturbed them, as he came near, the whole mass rose\ntogether in the air, and flew up a natural path through the forest. And\nstraight after them went the Baby!\n\n\u201cBut it was not a fair race; for they had wings to fly, and several\nthousand eyes apiece to see where they were going; and he had only his\ntwo small feet to carry him, and his one pair of eyes to watch the bees.\nSo he couldn\u2019t look where his feet were going; and the next thing that\nhappened\u2014he tripped and fell on his nose.\n\n\u201cIt didn\u2019t hurt him, and he picked himself up; but the bees were gone,\nand he could only follow on in the direction they had flown.\n\n\u201cHe was such a baby, it isn\u2019t likely he even remembered what he was\nlooking for; but there were other things to see beside bees; and a green\nforest, with birds and monkeys and all kinds of little living creatures\nin it, is a fine place to be in.\n\n\u201cSo he strayed on, amusing himself in his baby way, until he had gone\nreally a considerable distance from the village, and was on a ridge of\nhigh land that ran up the mountain.\n\n\u201cSuddenly, something was the matter with the ground, and try as he\nwould, he couldn\u2019t stand up on it\u2014it was swaying\u2014and the forest was full\nof strange noises; and a black cloud covered the sun so that it grew\ndark all in a moment. The great trees groaned and waved their branches,\nas if they too were trying to balance themselves on the rocking Earth.\nThose that were young and supple held their own; but a few that were old\nand dry fell crashing, and carried others down in their fall.\n\n\u201cBut though the trees cried and shrieked in their distress and\namazement,\u2014and the monkeys and birds too,\u2014the Bee Baby never made a\nsound. He lay pressed close against the ground in the awful darkness; as\nchickens cower when the mother hen sees the hawk\u2019s shadow, and sounds\nher warning to them.\n\n\u201cHe was like a little frightened animal, too, when the rocking stopped,\nand the forest gradually grew quiet around him; and he crept along the\nground, through the green tangle, to where a tree had fallen against a\ncleft in the rocky ledge, carrying a mass of vines down with it, and\nmaking a sort of den or shelter.\n\n\u201cThe brown baby crawled into the farthest corner, and huddled down close\nunder the rock, to wait helplessly for whatever was to come.\u201d\n\nThe Princess paused. \u201cPoor little soul!\u201d said Phyllisy. \u201cPlease go on,\nDearie.\u201d And after a moment, she began to speak again:\u2014\n\n\u201cOf course you know\u2014though the Bee Baby didn\u2019t\u2014what was making all this\ndisturbance; and if he hadn\u2019t left home so early that morning, before\nhis people were awake, they wouldn\u2019t have forgotten all about him. But\nwhen they were awake, they found enough to think of in watching Xyntli.\n\n\u201cThere stood the giant cone of the mountain, with the thin gray streak\nof her veil floating from the top.\n\n\u201cIt looked very peaceful.\n\n\u201cSuddenly\u2014without further warning\u2014Xyntli stood, straight and tall, in\nthe top of the mountain, borne up on the servant-winds that live with\nher inside!\n\n\u201cHer veil wrapped her from head to foot, and its loose folds were blown\nupward by the breath of the winds. Her hair streamed through its topmost\nfolds like gleaming flames; and the blue flashes that shot forth from\nthe veil might have been the anger that flared in her blue eyes when she\nsaw the outside of her mountain!\n\n\u201cNow, for the snakes!\n\n\u201cShe gave a strange, wailing cry\u2014like the wind, or flames rushing up the\nblack throat of the chimney\u2014and down in the depths of the mountain her\nfiery serpents came writhing out of their caverns, obedient to her call.\nThe blue cone and the whole countryside shuddered with their motion; and\nas their hot breath scorched the inside of the mountain, thick black\nsmoke arose like thunderclouds, and blotted out the sun. Then the heads\nof the fiery monsters peered over the rim at the mountain\u2019s top, and\nthey came crawling, gliding down its sides.\n\n\u201cAnd the very fiercest, hungriest of them all was rushing straight to\nthe village of bird-cage huts, nestling in the hollow upon the slope of\nthe mountain!\n\n\u201cIt was a splendid sight\u2014the mighty cone, purple in the midday darkness,\nwith the green forest at its base, and the serpents, like rivers of\nfire, pouring down its sides. Smoke and flame rose, streaming upward,\nwhere they passed.\n\n\u201cAnd in the midst of the murky clouds, on the mountain-top, stood\nXyntli, beautiful exceedingly, in her iridescent, gray veil, with her\nglittering, red-gold hair. Swaying lightly on the shoulders of her\nservant-winds, waving her arms and crying, she urged on her fiery\nsnakes, that were to restore her kingdom to her as she would have\nit\u2014clean, smooth, unbroken;\u2014the pattern of a perfect mountain!\n\n\u201cBut the people in the village saw the terror, not the beauty; and they\nthought only of their flight from it.\n\n\u201cThey huddled the babies and the old people who couldn\u2019t walk and their\nfew poor possessions onto the ox-carts. Some of them tried to drive the\nspotted pigs before them; and any one who has tried to drive _one_ pig\n(a plain one at that) can imagine how much confusion it made when there\nwere dozens and dozens. And it\u2019s not to be wondered at, that the aunts\nand the grandmother didn\u2019t count correctly. So they didn\u2019t miss the Bee\nBaby until they were far away; and the body of Xyntli\u2019s hideous snake\nlay stretched across the blackened hollow where the little huts had\nstood in the green grove.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n THEY THOUGHT ONLY OF THEIR FLIGHT\n]\n\n\u201cThere is a curious thing about a snake. It has a habit of slipping out\nof its skin, and squirming away, leaving the old one behind, looking\nquite like itself.\n\n\u201cXyntli\u2019s snakes were unusual in many ways; but in this they certainly\ndid something very like the rest of their tribe. When they had gone down\nthe mountains and filled up the hollows with their bodies, their fiery\nhearts seemed to die out of them where they lay. One might think they\nwere asleep, or dead; but I believe it was only their cast-off skins\nthey left behind, while the real snakes stole back into the mountain, to\nbe ready when Xyntli wanted them again.\u201d\n\n\u201cI believe it, too; that\u2019s what they did,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cIf they didn\u2019t, they wouldn\u2019t be there always, when she called,\u201d agreed\nPhyllisy.\n\n\u201cIt seems so to me,\u201d said the Princess. Then she took up the story\nagain: \u201cAt last Xyntli stopped her wild motion and looked down on her\nmountain.\n\n\u201cThe snakes had done their work well this time. There were no hollows\nleft, and no green thing but one slender spur of forest, like a finger\npointing up the slope, and that was hardly worth noticing.\n\n\u201cThe smoke was thin now, and blue. Xyntli stood, swaying softly on the\nmountain-top. Then she sank slowly, drawing her veil after her. Now she\nwas nearly gone; now, only a gleam of her red hair flickered against the\nsky; now\u2014she was quite gone\u2014\n\n\u201cWhen\u2014suddenly she shot up, straight, towering above the cone, and flung\na long fold of her veil wide over the land; and from it fell a shower of\nfine powder, soft as snow, that filled all the cracks and crevices and\ncovered the horrid bodies of the snakes, and choked every green thing\nleft in its track.\n\n\u201cThen\u2014as suddenly\u2014Xyntli vanished! and in her hollow mountain, slept\nonce more.\u201d\n\nThe Princess\u2019s voice died away in a hush that lasted a long moment, as\nif some one really were sleeping.\n\nThen Pat drew a deep breath: \u201cWell! I should say! For pitysakes! I hope\nshe\u2019s done mischief enough for once!\u201d\n\n\u201cShe didn\u2019t mean it for mischief. She had to make the mountain clean,\ndidn\u2019t she, Dearie? She couldn\u2019t help it if they were in the way,\u201d said\nMiss Phyllisy, with the wise little mind the Princess loved in her,\nclear and fair and earnest.\n\n\u201cBut she wouldn\u2019t be sorry,\u201d Pat insisted.\n\n\u201cNo; she went straight off to sleep,\u201d Phyllisy admitted. \u201cAnd that poor\nlittle baby!\u2014We\u2019re ready to go on, Dearie, whenever you\u2019re rested.\u201d\n\nAnd after a few minutes the Princess was ready also.\n\n\u201cThere isn\u2019t much that goes on on Mother Earth that the Star People\ndon\u2019t know about,\u201d she began, whisking them away to Starland without any\nwarning. \u201cOn clear nights, when they are standing still to be looked at,\nthey watch\u2014and watch. And Old Sol keeps watch by day. So there is not\nmuch that escapes them: certainly not Xyntli and her naps, and\nparticularly her wakings!\n\n\u201cShe was a tantalizing person in this way: though they might look at her\nnaps\u2014that were nothing to see but a place!\u2014as much and as long as they\nliked, no sooner was she fairly awake than the clouds would gather\nthick, and the Star People had to seize every chance to look through\nchinks. Any one who had a good sight had to tell it over to the others,\nagain and again. But they did have glimpses, and Sol too; and after it\nwas all over they could see what had been done. So they had a pretty\nclear idea of her and her actions.\u201d\n\nPat nodded her head, as if she had, too; but she didn\u2019t speak.\n\n\u201cWhen Xyntli vanished in her mountain the sky was full of heavy clouds;\nso when night came the Star People stationed themselves wherever there\nseemed the chance for a tiny gap, through which they might look.\n\n\u201cNow, Old Sol dearly loved the Bee Baby; and he had told the Zodiac\nPeople all about the quaint little child who was so happy by himself, in\nthe sunshine, watching the bees. So the Star People understood just what\nAndromeda meant when she exclaimed, from her chink in the cloud:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018The Bee Baby is left all alone by himself in that strip of forest on\nthe ridge!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Are you thure? I didn\u2019t thee him,\u2019 said Draco, at another chink.\n\n\u201c\u2018You\u2019re always imagining things,\u2019 said Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018I didn\u2019t imagine this,\u2019 insisted Andromeda. \u2018The light from Lady\nMoon\u2019s lantern shone through for a moment, and I saw him\nplainly\u2014standing in front of a dark hole in the rock. Then he ran back,\nas if he were frightened.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Well, I\u2019d like to know what his people are made of!\u2019 said Cassiopeia.\n\u2018They don\u2019t deserve to have a child, if they can\u2019t take better care of\nhim than that!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Maybe they aren\u2019t so bad,\u2019 said Hercules. \u2018I don\u2019t believe Xyntli\nasked \u2019em which way they\u2019d rather be chased out. When they saw those\nsnakes coming they hadn\u2019t any time to go back for stray babies! I don\u2019t\nmind snakes, myself, big or little, but I want \u2019em cold! They are,\ntoo\u2014mostly.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Too what?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018Cold,\u2019 answered Hercules; \u2018toads, too.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I thought you said you\u2019d rather have them cold?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I would. And they are\u2014mostly.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then why did you say they were _too_ cold?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I didn\u2019t. I want \u2019em that way. And they are, too.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But you\u2019\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018There\u2019s a conundrum about that,\u2019 interrupted Orion. (He couldn\u2019t stand\nit, to have them go on arguing.) \u2018I\u2019ve forgotten what it is; but the\nanswer is: Because a hot snake is better than a cold hop.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Why! that isn\u2019t it\u2014at _all_!\u2019 said Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018I should think you were all cold snakes and toads yourselves!\u2019 broke\nin Cassiopeia, indignantly. \u2018Arguing like that, with that poor child all\nalone in the middle of desolation! What do you propose to do about it?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018There isn\u2019t anything we can do,\u2019 said Cepheus. \u2018It isn\u2019t our place.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Xyntli is the one who ought to do something. She made all the\ntrouble,\u2019 said Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018Don\u2019t you be so silly,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018This is a serious matter.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I thouldn\u2019t like her to bring up _my_ child,\u2019 said Draco. \u2018The \u2019th too\nexthitable.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We can decide about yours when you have one!\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018Now,\nwho is going after that baby? Because I think they\u2019d better be\nstarting.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What over the sun are you talking about?\u2019 asked Orion. \u2018Going where?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We are going to adopt that Bee Baby. If some one doesn\u2019t start at\nonce, I shall go myself!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018_Adopt the Bee Baby!_\u2019 cried every one in chorus. They were too much\nastounded to say anything original; they could only repeat her\nwords\u2014though they knew it was rude.\n\n\u201c\u2018That was what I said,\u2019 said Cassiopeia.\n\n\u201c\u2018But you can\u2019t,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018No one ever thought of doing such a\nthing. It isn\u2019t the Rule of the Sky.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Do you know any Rule that _says_ we can\u2019t?\u2019 asked Cassiopeia.\n\n\u201c\u2018No,\u2019 answered Orion; and that disposed of him.\n\n\u201c\u2018How could you take care of him?\u2019 asked Perseus. \u2018He\u2019d keep getting\nlost; and he mightn\u2019t like it.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018It\u2019s a pity if I can\u2019t take care of one small child, and make him\nhappy!\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018I\u2019ll learn.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Wouldn\u2019t he just love to watch Sol\u2019s bees!\u2019 said Andromeda. \u2018It would\nbe a good thing to have some one to watch them; there\u2019s always such a\nfuss when they swarm.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yeth, indeed!\u2019 said Draco. \u2018Don\u2019t you remember latht time?\u2014when they\ngot away when no one wath notithing, and every one thought they were a\ncomet?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018It might have made a great deal of trouble. I\nthink we really need him. I\u2019m going now. Is any one coming with me?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018_No!_\u2019 exclaimed Cepheus. \u2018I forbid it! I am your husband, Cassiopeia;\nand I will be obeyed!\u2019\n\n\u201cEvery one looked at him\u2014startled to hear him speak like that. He stood\nholding up his sceptre in a magnificent attitude, and looked absolutely\nmajestic. Cassiopeia was too much astonished to speak for a moment, but\nAndromeda slipped her fingers into his and laid her cheek against his\nshoulder; and when he bent his head to listen to her pretty coaxing in\nhis ear, his crown tilted a trifle, and he looked like his usual,\ncloudy-night self. So no one was surprised to hear him say:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, I suppose so. But your mother needn\u2019t go.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019ll go,\u2019 said some one who hadn\u2019t spoken before.\n\n\u201cIt was Lady Moon.\u201d\n\n(\u201cOh-h,\u201d said the Others, softly, and very glad; and the Princess smiled\nback at them.)\n\n\u201cThe moment she spoke, the Star People felt every perplexity smoothed\naway, and it all became simple and plain. There wasn\u2019t the slightest\nreason in the Heavens, why they should not take that lonely little baby\nfor their own, to care for and to love.\n\n\u201cThe clouds in piled-up masses lay low on Xyntli\u2019s mountain; and it was\nan easy matter for the Star People to follow Lady Moon down from level\nto level. When they reached the limit of the cloud-stairway, they could\nsee once more; how right it was that they should wait\u2014their blazing\nglory hidden\u2014while Lady Moon, her lantern darkened, should slip unseen\ndown the bare shoulder of the mountain, to the strip of forest, left\nlike a dark finger pointing up the slope.\n\n\u201cAh, but think of a helpless, frightened little child\u2014only two years and\na scrap over\u2014alone in a dark cave in that awful desolation!\n\n\u201cHow must he have felt\u2014that little Bee Baby\u2014when, suddenly, a soft light\nshone into the cave, and he looked into the face of the loveliest of\nladies, who was holding her lantern so that it disclosed to her\u2014huddled\ninto the farthest corner of the cave\u2014a small brown heap. Only the eyes,\nlike a little frightened animal\u2019s, looking out of it, showed that it was\nalive.\n\n\u201cAnd the baby?\n\n[Illustration:\n\n HIS WONDERING EYES LOOKED FROM LADY MOON\u2019S SHOULDER\n]\n\n\u201cWhen he looked into that pitying face, and saw the tender arms held out\nto him, his own went out in answer; and then he was held close\u2014nestled\nlike a young bird or a tired baby\u2014as he was\u2014in the shelter of that\nloving breast.\n\n\u201cThen, what baby king had ever such a royal progress as that brown\nlittle child?\n\n\u201cHis wondering eyes looked from Lady Moon\u2019s shoulder, as she carried him\nup the stately stairway of mass upon mass of cloud, whose lowest step\nwas the mighty mountain, and whose highest led to the measureless\nHeavens! And grouped along its heights were the radiant Star People,\nwhose splendors might have frightened him if their faces had not been so\nkind with loving welcome. All those of whom we have talked, and many\nmore, assembled to welcome one little helpless child.\n\n\u201cIt was worth it, to see his eyes shine and the happy dimple come in his\ncheek. He clasped one arm, tight, around Lady Moon\u2019s neck, and stretched\nout the other to these new friends, without a trace of fear. Why should\nhe be afraid? Hadn\u2019t he loved the shining sun, and all beautiful things,\nhis whole two years of life?\n\n\u201cSo he listened to the song Lady Moon sang low to him; and as they\npassed along, the Star People caught the refrain, and took it up:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe sorrow is over;\n Thy Star life\u2019s begun.\n Hear the golden bees humming\n For joy at thy coming,\n Oh, little Bee Baby,\n Dear child of the Sun!\n\n\u201cListen!\u201d said the Princess.\n\nThere was a sound, very small and clear and\nsilvery:\u2014One\u2014two\u2014three\u2014four\u2014and _One more!_\n\nAnd that was a Bewitchment! Everybody must vanish at once!\n\n\n\n\n VII\n LADY MOON\u2019S LANTERN\n\n\nOn the terrace there was a Pergola\u2014that was two rows of white columns\nwith criss-cross bars overhead and vines growing over it. There were\nbuilt-in seats between the columns, but there were always chairs\nbesides.\n\nThere was no one in it. Down below, in the garden, there were Shapes\nflitting about in the dusk. They came up out of it, to the Pergola, all\ntogether; and they were the Princess and the Others.\n\nA large spider was spinning down, with a clear yellow sky behind it, at\nthe far end of the Pergola. They were obliged to watch it. It dropped\nand sprung, elastic, on the end of its thread\u2014then dropped\u2014and sprung;\nand then it clawed up again, working its legs. They could see them\ndistinctly against the sky, though it was quite a distance away. Out at\ntheir end, the sky was cool, with a white moon in it; so there were two\nkinds of shadows: large, blurred ones from the last daylight; and in\nthem, moon-shadows of the vines on the long white seats and on the floor\nand down one side of the Princess\u2019s dress\u2014sitting in a chair. The\nmoon-shadows were very faint, but they were a clear pattern, and the\ndaylight shadows had no edges; soon there would be only moon. It was\nvery interesting.\n\nAnd the slide of Lady Moon\u2019s lantern was about three quarters open.\n\n\u201cWasn\u2019t it lovely she took him?\u201d said Phyllisy. \u201cI\u2019d rather she than\nanybody else.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut it stopped short,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cThat was a proper end of a story, with everybody happy,\u201d said the\nPrincess. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t want any more than that, would you?\u201d\n\n\u201cThe people weren\u2019t, with the houses and everything spoiled.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut they built new ones, very quickly. It doesn\u2019t take long to build a\nhouse like a bird-cage. They drove the loaded ox-carts only a little way\ndown the slope of the mountain; and before you could think, there was a\nnew village just like the old, and everything was just as it was before.\nThe brown babies and the spotted pigs ran and tumbled about, and the\nwomen went right on grinding corn to make more and more flat cakes; but\nthey didn\u2019t do much housework or sewing, and everybody slept a good deal\nin the midday heat; then when the cool evening came they gathered\ntogether to visit comfortably, while the children played about in the\nmoonlight.\u201d\n\n\u201cLike us?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cLike us,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cOnly you aren\u2019t playing about; you are\nlistening to more story.\u201d\n\n\u201cOh, is it more?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cA tiny bit,\u201d said the Princess. And the Others wriggled down into their\nplaces to listen quite differently from the way they listened when it\nwas conversation. She began to speak in a still voice:\u2014\n\n\u201cSo it was one night when the full, round moon shone, silver-bright\nabove the treetops. One of the women sat a little apart, and watched it\nsoaring among the stars. And as she looked, it seemed to her it was not\nquite round; a tiny slice was gone from one edge.\n\n\u201c\u2018See the moon!\u2019 she called to the others, pointing upward.\n\n\u201cThey gathered near; and as they watched it, the dark shadow crept\nforward, across the face of the moon.\n\n\u201c\u2018What is it?\u2019 asked the children.\n\n\u201c\u2018I know not,\u2019 said the old grandmother. \u2018It comes so at times; but\nnever have I seen it like this. Before, it has covered the whole moon,\nor gone over one edge\u2014like a great shadow. But this is round, like a\ndark ball, and small. See, the moon shows around it.\u2019\n\n\u201cIt was as she said: a thin thread of light, like a silver ring, almost\nsurrounded the dark something that came between their eyes and the moon.\n\n\u201c\u2018It is just like the Bee Baby!\u2019 said one of the children. \u2018Don\u2019t you\nremember how round his little head was?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I wonder what became of him,\u2019 said another.\n\n\u201c\u2018Perhaps he\u2019s there\u2014in the sky,\u2019 said a third.\n\n\u201cBut the grandmother said: \u2018You are foolish children. He is dead.\nXyntli\u2019s snakes could tell\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201cWise children know when to stop arguing with older people about things\nthat only children understand. So they said no more to the grandmother,\nbut drew away, and talked and whispered to each other\u2014while the small\nround shadow passed on, across the bright lantern of the moon, and left\nit clear once more.\u201d\n\n[Illustration:\n\n THE SMALL ROUND SHADOW PASSED ON ACROSS THE BRIGHT LANTERN OF THE MOON\n]\n\n\n\u201cBut it was truly the Bee Baby,\u201d said Pat. \u201cAnd now they could know what\nbecame of him.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat did he do to the moon?\u201d asked the Kitten, because she didn\u2019t\nexactly understand.\n\n\u201cWhat do you think about this?\u201d asked the Princess. \u201cIf a little\nchild\u2014so tall\u201d\u2014she showed, with her hand\u2014\u201cfollows a beautiful lady with\na lantern hung on her arm, don\u2019t you think, once in a great while, his\nround little head _might_ come in the way, and interfere with its\nlight?\u201d\n\n\u201cIt did. That was it,\u201d said the Kitten comfortably.\n\nThen, with Lady Moon throwing leaf patterns and white light down upon\nthem, and the whole world very still, the Princess told them a song:\u2014\n\n \u201cWho loves to follow wherever you roam,\n Lady Moon?\u201d\n \u201cBee Baby.\u201d\n \u201cIs he happy in Starland?\u2014so far from his home?\u201d\n \u201cHe may be.\n\n \u201cOver Milky-Way meadows\n Fly the bees, living gold;\n There he strays, blessed Lamb,\n Safe, with love for his fold.\u201d\n\n \u201cWho comes to nestle so close in your arm,\n Lady Moon?\u201d\n \u201cBee Baby.\u201d\n \u201cIs he falling asleep, to a Starland lullaby\u2019s charm?\u201d\n \u201cHush\u2014he may be!\u201d\n\n\n\n\n VIII\n ANDROMEDA\u2019S BIRTHDAY\n\n\n \u201cNine more days,\n And then comes a birthday,\u201d\n\nthe Kitten sang, over and over, making different tunes each time. She\nsang it softly, to herself, but it was loud enough to be heard.\n\n\u201cDear-my-soul!\u201d said the Princess. \u201cWhatever will happen when you\u2019re a\nseven-year-longlegs, \u2019stead of six? Skeeters, you know.\u201d\n\nThe Kitten stopped singing and rubbed her leg where there were lumpy\nspots above her socks.\n\n\u201cShe\u2019ll have stockings when they get too long,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cAnd the next thing we know, she\u2019ll begin to be a Cat! Why don\u2019t you\nhave birthdays like the Star People\u2019s?\u201d\n\n\u201cWhat kind?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cSteady and reliable,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cEverybody is exactly the\nright age to begin, and then they never grow any older.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut they are different ages,\u201d Pat objected.\n\n\u201cThe right age for _them_,\u201d the Princess explained. \u201cHaven\u2019t you noticed\nthat they were?\u201d\n\nThe Others thought about it for a minute, and decided that they couldn\u2019t\nvery well be different.\n\n\u201cBut if they are always going along the same, perhaps they wouldn\u2019t\nnotice their birthdays,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cIndeed, they would,\u201d said the Princess, earnestly. \u201cThey\u2019re\nparticularly good about remembering dates and anniversaries and times of\nthe year. And they\u2019d never think of letting a birthday go by without\nnoticing it.\u201d\n\n\u201cWould they have a party?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cThey do usually. Do you think it would help you along a little through\none of those nine days, to hear about one of them?\u201d\n\nAnd the Kitten seemed to think it would.\n\n\u201cWhose birthday is it going to be?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cAndromeda\u2019s, the same year that the Sailor\u2019s Star was stolen; and Orion\ngave the party. You remember the young meteors that he had planted were\njust coming up in his garden when Cassiopeia came to tell him what a\nmisfortune had happened? All those same young plants had kept on growing\nand growing, unusually well, and Orion was as proud of them as a comet\nwith two tails. They promised to be ripe just in time for Andromeda\u2019s\nbirthday, and he said he would like to give the party.\u201d\n\n\u201cTo eat them?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cNever!\u201d said the Princess. \u201cI thought you knew about meteors: when they\nare exactly ripe you give them a bit of a pinch. Pop! goes a beautiful\nstarlet with a trail of gold-dust behind it.\u201d\n\n\u201cFireworks,\u201d said the Kitten.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s the way a balsam seed pops,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cYes, it reminds me of it,\u201d agreed the Princess. \u201cWhen they are ripe one\nhas to be very careful not to hit them, or they go off too soon. Orion\nwouldn\u2019t even pick off a leaf or pull up a weed, he was being so careful\nto save every one for the birthday celebration; and how he did have to\nwatch the dogs, to keep them out!\n\n\u201cThe night before, it was partly cloudy, and Orion almost drove\nCassiopeia wild, dodging about behind the drifting clouds, making his\nlast arrangements. Little Bear, too. It seemed as if he were possessed,\nhe who was always so quiet and steady\u2014\u2018The best Little Bear that ever\nhappened!\u2019 Andromeda used to say, when she gave him a bear-hug, and then\nrubbed his soft fur the wrong way, from his tail clear down his nose, to\nfeel the tingles and see the sparks fly. But no sooner had they begun to\ntalk about her birthday than he began to be excited; and this last night\nit seemed as if he could not keep still. Whenever a cloud lay so that he\ncould, he would go clear to the edge of it to watch Orion. Once,\nCassiopeia could scarcely believe her eyes: there was Orion, talking to\nLady Moon behind the clouds; then she saw Little Bear crowding in\nbetween them, looking up at them eagerly. Orion was too much engrossed\nto notice him, but Cassiopeia called at the top of her voice (and it was\na very high top), \u2018Come here _this minute_, Little Bear! I should think\nyou were crazy!\u2019\n\n\u201cHe heard her, and came prancing back, zigzag, as fast as he could dodge\nfrom cloud to cloud. When he was back in his place, barely in the nick\nof time, his eyes almost twinkled out of his head, and his fur shone so\nthat Cassiopeia could hardly see his stars. She couldn\u2019t help laughing,\nthough she was annoyed. It was bad enough for Orion to dodge around like\nthat; but his legs were so long he could get back to his place always\nbefore the clouds floated off.\n\n\u201cThe next night no one could have asked for better star-weather, just\nplain clouds, not a jumpy kind to keep them wondering every half-hour\nwhat it was going to do.\n\n\u201cA little before midnight the Star People began to come to the party.\nOrion was the first to arrive, then Hercules and Draco.\u201d\n\n\u201cNot Little Bear?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cHe was there without arriving\u2014Andromeda and Cepheus and Cassiopeia and\nPerseus and Little Bear. Very soon there was such a noise and chattering\ndown the Sky that one might have thought a whole flock of magpies was\ncoming: but Orion and Draco and Cassiopeia knew better, and magpies\ndon\u2019t squeal and giggle quite like that.\n\n\u201c\u2018Jutht hear thothe Pleiadeth girlth,\u2019 said Draco. \u2018I don\u2019t thee how any\none can be tho thilly.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s because you never were a girl,\u2019 said Cepheus. At that,\nAndromeda began to giggle too; and the more she tried to stop, the\nharder she giggled.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, what\u2019th the matter with _her_?\u2019 asked Draco.\n\n\u201cAnd then Andromeda squealed, and laughed so she choked, and Perseus had\nto thump her on the back, while she gasped: \u2018To think of Draco\u2019s being a\ng-gu-girl!\u2014_Oh!_\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018She\u2019s one, all right,\u2019 remarked Orion, \u2018and here are the others.\u2019\n\n\u201cMaybe they were silly, but the seven Misses Pleiades certainly were\npretty to look at as they came in sight. Their gowns were of thin golden\ngauze, with a multitude of tiny stars woven into the underdress; their\ninterlacing beams made a pattern, like gold embroidery, and they\nshimmered faintly through the mist-like tissue that veiled them.\n\n\u201cThey wore no other stars but one above the forehead. The stars of six\nof the sisters were very brilliant, but the seventh was puzzling. When\none gave a quick glance and looked away one could see the star quite\nplainly; but when one looked directly at her it was gone! It was like\nthe place where a star had been. This sister\u2019s name was Merope, and her\neyes were so sweet and gentle that the people who loved her never missed\nthe star from her soft brown hair.\n\n\u201cThe tallest of the sisters, whose name was Maia, came ahead (as much as\nany one could be ahead where they all walked in a bunch!), and she\ncalled to Orion: \u2018Oh, weren\u2019t you mean! Why didn\u2019t you wait for us?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Didn\u2019t you hear us calling you?\u2019 cried Taygeta.\n\n\u201c\u2018We thought we\u2019d be late,\u2019 said Electra (no one thought of waiting for\nan answer), \u2018Taygeta kept us waiting so.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I never!\u2019 said Taygeta. \u2018It was Alcyone!\u2019 Then they all looked at each\nother and giggled again, and Andromeda giggled with them, where she and\nMerope stood with their arms around each other\u2019s waists. It was a\ngiggling match, and Cepheus and Cassiopeia and Orion and Hercules and\nPerseus and Draco and Castor and Pollux\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Zodiacs?\u201d asked Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cYes, the Gemini Brothers.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid Sol let them?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cOf course, for a party. They came just after the Pleiades girls. They\nall looked at the gigglers, and they smiled because they were young and\npretty, and _they_ seemed to know what they were laughing at, but the\nothers couldn\u2019t guess what it was, to save them!\u201d\n\n\u201cWeren\u2019t they silly?\u201d said Pat. \u201cBut we do it, too.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd quite big girls\u2014much bigger than we,\u201d added Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cEven worse, Miss Phyllisy. I\u2019ve noticed it,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\u201cFinally Cepheus said: \u2018You might as well go home, Orion. These girls\ndon\u2019t want a party to-night.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, yes, we do!\u2019 they cried. \u2018Only Taygeta\u2014\u2019 Then they were off again.\n\n\u201c\u2018Come, come!\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018Just pretend you have a little sense!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Draco has!\u2019 cried Andromeda. \u2018_He_ never was a girl!\u2019\n\n\u201cThen everybody laughed together\u2014Draco, and all; and when they were\nquieted down they were ready to begin the party.\n\n\u201cAndromeda and Perseus took Little Bear and went off a little way, while\nOrion placed the other Star People in two lines that led up to\nCassiopeia\u2019s Chair. She and Cepheus stood at the head of the lines, on\neither side of the chair. And then they began to sing Andromeda\u2019s\nBirthday Song:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe stars sang together at the little maiden\u2019s birth;\n They watched her through the years\n Of gladness and of tears;\n And they said: \u2018She\u2019ll come to dwell with us when she shall leave the\n Earth.\n\n \u201c\u2018She shall bring an earthly blessing in which we have no part;\n We can only shine by night,\n When the sun has sunk from sight;\n She shall bring the sunshine with her\u2014though it\u2019s hidden in her heart!\u2019\n\n \u201cA thousand, thousand greetings to the maiden, ever young!\n As the years the birthdays bring,\n The stars together sing\n The praise of maid the sweetest whose praise was ever sung!\n\n\u201cAs the Star People sang, Perseus led Andromeda slowly up to them.\nLittle Bear walked ahead; and he was so proud and, at the same time, so\nexcited, that he hardly knew whether he wanted to walk in a very\ndignified way, or to prance and dance. The consequence was, he did both.\nEvery few steps, he made a funny little skip; then he was so embarrassed\nto think he had done it that he\u2019d rub his paw over his nose, and almost\ntip over, because he was walking along all the time.\n\n\u201cHow they did laugh at him! all but Andromeda; she looked very serious\nand grave, because it was a Ceremony. As she walked, with her hand in\nPerseus\u2019, between her friends to the chair where her father and mother\nstood waiting for her, she was so sweet and modest and stately\u2014like a\nlittle queen\u2014that no one who saw her could have helped loving her.\n\n\u201cThere was no doubt how Cepheus and Cassiopeia felt about it, when she\nstopped before them, and Perseus and Little Bear stepped back; then she\nclasped her hands and recited, in her clear, fresh voice, her little\nverse:\u2014\n\n \u201cWith heartfelt joy and thankfulness,\n I come to you, that you may bless\n Your happy child to-day.\n You, whom I owe all reverence\n And love and prompt obedience,\n Accept them now, I pray!\n\n\u201cA father-and-mother kiss on one\u2019s birthday isn\u2019t the gayest part of it,\nbut we know it\u2019s the best\u2014don\u2019t we, Kitten?\u2014and Andromeda is the only\nStar Person who can have it. That is one reason why they love to keep\nher birthday; it can be so complete.\n\n\u201cCassiopeia and Cepheus placed Andromeda in the great chair, and the\nStar People came, one by one, and knelt and kissed her hand, then\nfastened a star-daisy in her hair\u2014they kissed her pretty pink cheek too,\nwhen they had done it; but that was just love and extra, not part of the\nceremony; so they made her a beautiful crown, and she looked more like a\nqueen than ever.\n\n\u201cWhen this was over she stepped down from the chair and took Perseus\u2019\nhand, and, with Little Bear ahead once more, they went down the Sky.\nOrion followed with Maia; then Castor and Taygeta, and Pollux and\nAlcyone. Hercules took Merope, because she was so gentle and never\nlaughed at him. That left three of the Pleiades girls,\u2014Electra, Celeno,\nand Sterope,\u2014but Draco said: \u2018That\u2019th all right. I gueth I can walk with\nthree girlth. I\u2019m long enough!\u2019 How they squealed and giggled! But that\nwas the way they arranged it; and Cepheus and Cassiopeia came at the end\nof the procession.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere was it going?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cFirst, they were going all around the Zodiac to carry greetings to the\npeople who were shut up. They always did it on birthdays, and they liked\nthat part, but it took a good while, and this time Orion was impatient\nto have it over. He wanted to have them come to his especial share of\nthe party.\n\n\u201cAnd at last they came in sight of his garden; and Little Bear skipped\nthe funniest prance yet, when he saw what was waiting for them. This was\nwhat Orion was talking about the night before, to Lady Moon.\u201d The\nPrincess stopped just long enough to let the Others wonder what it could\nbe.\u2014\u2014\n\n\u201cA moonbow,\u201d began the Princess, and the Others said, \u201cOh-h!\u201d\n\n\u201cA moonbow,\u201d she repeated, \u201cisn\u2019t so gayly colored as a rainbow, but it\nis shinier, and the most delightful thing you can imagine, to sit on, to\nsee a meteor party. And kind Lady Moon stood with her lantern behind the\nedge of a cloud, so that the light shouldn\u2019t interfere with the meteors,\nand held the bow steady, exactly in the best place.\n\n\u201cCassiopeia declared she never could walk up; but she did\u2014to the top,\nand sat down, with Little Bear cuddled up by her side with his toes\nstraight out in front of him, between her and Andromeda. The others\nsettled themselves on either side\u2014all except Hercules and Draco. Draco\nwould have taken too much room; and Hercules said:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018I guess I\u2019ll stay here. If that cloud should happen to flop around,\nthat thing would go out like winkin\u2019. I\u2019ve seen \u2019em do it.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Pleiades girls shrieked, and pretended they were coming down; and\nDraco said: \u2018Never mind. I\u2019ll catth you if it meltth.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018You sit still,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018That moonbow is there to stay. Lady Moon\nand I know about that.\u2019 But they never meant to get down; they only\nliked to make a fuss.\u2014What is it, Kitten?\u201d The Princess could tell, by\nthe way she wriggled, when she wanted to know something.\n\nShe held her foot tight and rocked on her tucked-under leg when she\nasked it: \u201cWas the Bee Baby too young to invite?\u201d\n\n\u201cHe would have been rather young for a party; but that wasn\u2019t the reason\nhe didn\u2019t come. This birthday was before there was any Bee Baby. Little\nBear was the only child they had.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll right,\u201d said the Kitten. \u201cThen what did they do?\u201d\n\n\u201cAt last, when they were all settled on the moonbow, Orion went into his\ngarden. He stooped over one of the bushes, very carefully, lest he\nshould rub against some of the others, and gave just the right kind of a\npinch,\u2014then, \u2018Ah-h,\u2019 said the Star People, as a lovely meteor flew\nup\u2014up, over their heads, leaving a little trail of gold-dust behind it.\n\n\u201cThat was the beginning; and Orion had good reason to be proud of his\ngarden, for each meteor seemed lovelier than the last. They couldn\u2019t\ndecide whether the blue ones were prettier than the red or the green; or\nthose that flew in straight lines than those that flew in spirals, they\nwere all so beautiful.\n\n\u201cSo it went on with hardly a mishap. Almost every meteor was just ripe,\nand Orion joggled only two so that they went off too soon; and he had\ncome to the last two bushes. They stood side by side and were the finest\nin the garden; that was why he had saved them for the last.\n\n\u201c\u2018What are those dogs after?\u2019 asked Cepheus. Orion had left them with\nSagittarius, in the Zodiac, for fear of accidents.\n\n\u201c\u2018Where?\u2019 called Orion, who couldn\u2019t see from the garden, so well as\nthey from the moonbow.\n\n\u201c\u2018There they come,\u2019 said Cassiopeia, and they all craned their necks to\nsee.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yap! yap!\u2019 cried the dogs, and on they came; and just ahead of\nthem\u2014barely out of reach\u2014was\u2014? A comet, of course! What else could it\nbe? It was only a scrap of a comet, with a stub of a tail, and how it\nwas scrabbling along!\n\n\u201cIt was heading straight by, when it saw Orion standing by his meteor\nbushes; and what did that bad, mischievous little comet do, but turn\nsquare off, with a flirt of his saucy tail under the dogs\u2019 noses, and\nmake directly for the two bushes! Straight after it came the dogs\u2014and\nthree Orions couldn\u2019t have stopped them, they hated a comet so\u2014and\nrip\u2014smash! they ran right through the bushes, and thirty meteors at once\nflew up in one splendid blaze!\n\n\u201cOrion\u2019s first thought was that it was a misfortune, and spoiled the end\nof his party. But Cassiopeia said, as soon as she could get her breath:\n\u2018I think that was perfectly splendid! And you never would have had the\nheart to send them all off at once, like that!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, indeed!\u2019 said every one else; and Orion thought so, too.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019d rather,\u201d said Pat. \u201cWouldn\u2019t you?\u201d\n\n\u201cMuch rather,\u201d agreed the Princess. \u201cWho would choose deliberately to\nhave a party fizzle out, when it might go in\n\n[Illustration:\n\n THREE ORIONS COULDN\u2019T HAVE STOPPED THEM\n]\n\na blaze of glory? It was time to go home, anyway; so they climbed down\nfrom the moonbow.\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, hasn\u2019t this been the loveliest party we ever had?\u2019 said Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, it has,\u2019 said Merope. \u2018And I know who has enjoyed it more than\nanybody.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Who?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Little Bear.\u2019\n\n\u201cAndromeda turned and dropped on her knees beside him to give him a hug,\nand his eyes twinkled like stars.\n\n\u201c\u2018Bless his little heart!\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018I wish we could keep his\nbirthday, but nobody knows when it is.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But we love him just the same!\u2019 said Andromeda, rubbing his fur the\nwrong way and ending with a little shake of his nose\u2014and the sparks flew\nas if he were a garden of meteors himself. And that was really the end\nof the party.\u201d\n\n\nThe Kitten had something in her mind to do at once when she was\nperfectly sure the party was over. For that very minute when the\nPrincess came to the end and Pat and Miss Phyllisy began to talk about\nit, she slipped her foot out from under her to have it ready to walk on.\nAnd the next minute, when Phyllisy looked around to see why the child\nwasn\u2019t talking too, when it was rather especially her story, she was\nalready starting away\u2014and she didn\u2019t care to tell what for.\n\nBecause they wondered, and they knew she wouldn\u2019t mind\u2014it was only that\nshe didn\u2019t like to explain\u2014they followed after. When she was clear away,\nthe Kitten began to run, so when they came to the place in the garden\nwhere the balsams grew all in a row, she was there and had found a ripe\none.\n\nThere were very few flowers left, and a great many seedpods, and when\nthey pinched them at the tip\u2014or only barely touched them\u2014they popped\ndelightfully, but there didn\u2019t any star shoot out.\n\nBut they pretended there did; and\u2014as Miss Phyllisy remarked\u2014you couldn\u2019t\nsee actual fireworks if you set them off with the sun shining like that.\n\n\n\n\n IX\n A SURPRISE PARTY\n\n\nIt seemed to the Others that the Princess was a _long_ time coming. And\nonce they had been afraid they wouldn\u2019t be ready in time. But they\nwere\u2014too soon, and it was the watching that made it seem so long. They\n_flew_ when they saw her, and hurried her along.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s something to surprise you,\u201d said Miss Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cWe did it all this morning,\u201d added Pat.\n\n\u201cThought of it and gathered them and everything,\u201d chattered the Kitten,\nwalking on all sides of them.\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t you tell,\u201d warned Pat\u2019s eyebrows.\n\n\u201cYou couldn\u2019t guess, could you?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cNow stop; from here,\u201d said Phyllisy, \u201cshut your eyes and we\u2019ll lead you\nso you won\u2019t see too soon.\u201d\n\nSo the Princess shut her eyes, and Pat and Phyllisy led her and the\nKitten went ahead over the lawn until they said, \u201cNow, open!\u201d\n\nDirectly before them was the great wicker chair from the piazza, sitting\nunder a tree. But nobody would have known it was that chair at all\u2014so\ntrimmed and flowery.\n\nThere were pink and purple and white ones from the garden, and tall\nplumes of small feathery ones, that were wild ones, nodding on the back,\nand all lovely.\n\n\u201cDo you notice what they are?\u201d asked Phyllisy. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have any\nother kind.\u201d\n\n\u201cDo you know why we had that kind?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re _stars_!\u201d cried the Kitten.\n\n\u201cBecause you said \u2018asters\u2019 meant stars,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cAnd it\u2019s Cassiopeia\u2019s!\u2014For you!\u201d they all finished. \u201cDo you like it?\u201d\n\nAnd the Princess reached around and gathered them all into one\nfour-sided hug, because how she loved it she couldn\u2019t otherwise tell.\nAnd Cassiopeia\u2019s never had a quarter so many stars. \u201cWe didn\u2019t leave one\nin the garden,\u2014large enough to pick,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s where you\u2019re going to sit to tell the story,\u201d said the Kitten.\n\n\u201cAnd when you\u2019re ready, we\u2019ll lead you up to it, and make \u2018salaams,\u2019\u201d\nsaid Miss Phyllisy.\n\nWhen she had admired more particularly the way they had done it, she was\nready, and they went off to the next tree to come back properly, Pat and\nMiss Phyllisy leading the Princess, and the Kitten holding up her gown\nbehind.\n\nThen the Princess turned around and stood in front of the chair, and the\nOthers stood facing her in a row.\n\n\u201cSalaam alek\u00fbm,\u201d said the Princess, bowing very low and saluting with\nher down-dropped hand from her feet, to her heart, to her forehead, in\ntwo scallops.\n\n\u201cAlek\u00fbm essalaam,\u201d replied the Others, saluting the same to her.\n\nAnd to the Princess and Miss Phyllisy and the Kitten it was a kind of\ngame they played, but it was not play at all to Pat. Even the little\nchildren said, \u201cMy compliments to you,\u201d like that, where she came from.\n\n\n\u201cThis story begins with Perseus and Andromeda sitting in a favorite\nplace of theirs, where three tall poplars grow on the bank of the\nStarland River,\u201d the Princess announced when she had taken her seat.\n\n\u201cThe three sisters that were changed into them?\u201d asked Phyllisy.\n\nThe Princess nodded. \u201cMust have been.\u201d\n\n\u201cIs it a real river?\u201d asked Pat. \u201cLike any river?\u201d\n\n\u201cLike all the most beautiful rivers in the world in one, only changed\ninto star-meanings\u2014fireflies winking among the reeds, and fairy trees\nalong the banks, with strange glowing fruit and blossoms on their\nshadowy branches. The poplars carry theirs proudly on their tops, like a\ncrown.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s something Beyond, isn\u2019t it, Dearie?\u2014to understand just what it\u2019s\nlike,\u201d suggested Phyllisy, \u201cyou have to know it inside, and stop.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s the only way,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cIt\u2019s gone in the telling\u2014like\nfairy gold when you touch it. But the river was there in Starland, and\nthere were Perseus and Andromeda having a cosy talk.\n\n\u201c\u2018What do you suppose ails Little Bear, to make him act so?\u2019 said she.\n\n\u201c\u2018How does he act?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t see how you could have helped noticing him. It\u2019s ever since my\nbirthday. He hops when he walks, and looks so important; and lately he\nhas taken to going off by himself\u2014nobody knows where. I believe he\u2019s\nplanning something.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Let\u2019s watch him, and find out what it is.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes. That\u2019s what I spoke about it for. But we mustn\u2019t let him guess we\nare watching. It would spoil his fun.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Of course not,\u2019 said Perseus.\n\n\n\u201cA few nights later, Perseus beckoned mysteriously to Andromeda. She was\nlistening to old Aquarius. She often went to visit him, and it pleased\nhim even more than it bored her, so she liked to do it.\n\n\u201cBut when she saw Perseus, she made her escape as quickly as she could,\nand came to him.\n\n\u201c\u2018What is it?\u2019 she whispered.\n\n\u201c\u2018Little Bear has just gone again. I saw him coming toward Orion\u2019s\ngarden. Orion was there, and Little Bear pretended he was going by\u2014not\nanywhere in particular. Then Orion came out of the garden and went\ntoward Sagittarius\u2019 House, and Little Bear turned in, quick as a wink,\nand went through and on\u2014down the Milky Way.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Come, quick!\u2019 said Andromeda. \u2018Are you sure you know which way he\nwent?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes. We\u2019ll find him easily enough.\u2019\n\n\u201cOrion had come back to his garden, but they were in such haste they\ndidn\u2019t even see that he was there. He watched them whisk through, and as\nthey were going out at the farther side, he called to them: \u2018Did you\ncome to see me?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No,\u2019 answered Perseus. \u2018What makes you think we did?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Because you are in my garden.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We aren\u2019t now,\u2019 said Andromeda over her shoulder\u2014pushing Perseus ahead\nof her. \u2018You don\u2019t mind, do you?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No. Only you might say good-evening.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We do,\u2019 she called. \u2018But we can\u2019t stop now.\u2019\n\n\u201cSo she and Perseus ran on, and before long they caught sight of Little\nBear. They crept cautiously nearer, where they could watch him unseen.\nHe was hunting for something.\n\n\u201c\u2018What do you suppose it is?\u2019 whispered Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018I can\u2019t make out\u2014wait\u2014there! What\u2019s that he\u2019s found?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018It\u2019s a meteor bush,\u2019 said she.\n\n\u201cLittle Bear stopped by the bush\u2014looked at it\u2014looked around him; then he\ntrotted on\u2014hunting for something.\n\n\u201cThey watched him find another bush\u2014and another; and each time look back\nand forth. It was very mysterious.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n LITTLE BEAR STOPPED BY THE BUSH\n]\n\n\u201c\u2018He is fixing the places in his mind, so that he can come back to them\nagain!\u2019 exclaimed Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s it,\u2019 agreed Perseus. \u2018I wonder what for.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We\u2019ll find out.\u2014Be careful! He\u2019s coming home.\u2019\n\n\u201cThey kept close until Little Bear had trotted by them and was out of\nsight. Then they went themselves to examine the bushes. But that didn\u2019t\nhelp them to understand. They were the ordinary kind of wild meteors\nthat never grow very large; and they were still quite green.\n\n\u201cSo they gave up puzzling about it, and went back to be civil to Orion.\nBut when he wanted to know why they were in such a hurry, they were so\nmysterious he thought they had a secret; and he never guessed that the\nsecret was Little Bear\u2019s, and one reason why they wouldn\u2019t tell was\nbecause they didn\u2019t know it themselves!\n\n\u201cThey began to think they never were going to know, for Little Bear\ndidn\u2019t go off again and gave them no chance to find out.\u201d\n\n\u201cI thought I knew, once,\u201d said Miss Phyllisy. \u201cBut I don\u2019t know so well\nnow. Can you guess, Pat?\u201d\n\nPat shook her head. \u201cNo. But she\u2019ll tell us.\u201d And the Princess went on\nto tell them, in her own way:\u2014\n\n\u201cCepheus awoke one night, the first of the Star People. As he turned his\nhead quickly, something bobbed against his forehead; and he could\nsee\u2014out of the tail of his eye\u2014something dangling that moved when he\ndid. He took off his crown and looked at it. There was a rather wilted\ngreen meteor tucked into it. He knew he didn\u2019t put it there himself, but\nhe didn\u2019t take it out, and while he was thinking about it, Draco woke.\n\n\u201cHe gave his wings a flap to see that the joints worked right, and\nsomething fell out of the fold of one of them. What should it be but a\nlittle green meteor with a very short stem!\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019th funny,\u2019 he said. Then he stuck it on one of the sharp prongs\nof his wing, and came over to Cepheus.\n\n\u201c\u2018Thee what I\u2019ve got,\u2019 he said.\n\n\u201c\u2018So have I,\u2019 said Cepheus. \u2018Where did they come from?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Maybe it\u2019th a joke. Do you thuppoth any one elth hath them?\u2014I\u2019m going\nto look.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Cathiopeia hath!\u2019 he called, in a whisper. \u2018Right on the arm of her\nchair bethide her.\u2019\n\n\u201cCepheus was perfectly willing to have some one else do the running\nabout; so he waited, and in a few minutes Draco came back to him.\n\n\u201c\u2018Every thingle perthon around here hath one,\u2019 he said. \u2018Herculeth\u2019 ith\nthtuck into the crook of hith thumb where he\u2019th holding hith club; and\nPertheuth\u2019 hath two thnakes twithted around it on hith Gorgon\u2019th head.\u2019\n\n\u201cBut the time was gone by to discuss it quietly, for Cassiopeia was\nawake. By chance, her meteor was the first thing her eye rested upon.\n\n\u201c\u2018What is that?\u2019 she said to herself, and picked it up. \u2018I\u2019d like to\nknow where that came from. _See here!_\u2019 she called to Cepheus, and her\nvoice began to sound excited. \u2018Look at that!\u2019\n\n\u201cHe came toward her, and Draco followed him. \u2018What is it?\u2019 he asked,\npretending not to know.\u201d\n\n\u201cTo be funny?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cYes. Cepheus was a bit of a wag in his way. \u2018Can\u2019t you see?\u2019 Cassiopeia\nasked impatiently. \u2018A little wilted green meteor!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What of it? It won\u2019t hurt you.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Of course it won\u2019t! But how did it come here?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018You must have put it there yourself, to decorate.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Now you know better. Wouldn\u2019t I know it if\u2014Why! _You\u2019ve got one\nyourself!_\u2019 she almost shrieked.\n\n\u201c\u2018Have I?\u2019 asked Cepheus, innocently.\n\n\u201c\u2018There\u2014in your crown!\u2019 and she pointed to it. And Draco could not keep\nstill another second.\n\n\u201c\u2018We\u2019ve all got them!\u2019 he cried. Then Cassiopeia knew they had been\npretending\u2014to make sport of her; and that was the time everybody else\nhad to wake up!\u201d\n\n\u201cIt was Little Bear put them,\u201d said the Kitten.\n\n\u201cThat was the very person. And Andromeda guessed it at once. But even\nshe couldn\u2019t guess _why_. So she chose to wait a little before she\nspoke. Perseus must have forgotten, or it took him longer to wake up;\nbut suddenly it occurred to him too. Andromeda pulled his elbow just as\nthe word was at his lips. \u2018Don\u2019t say anything,\u2019 she whispered. \u2018Look at\nLittle Bear!\u2019\n\n\u201cPerseus looked; and it was hard not to laugh. Little Bear did laugh\u2014in\nhis own way. He twinkled! He was close by Cassiopeia\u2019s chair, and fairly\nbursting with importance and excitement, but he was so little they quite\noverlooked him.\n\n\u201cCassiopeia went straight on talking.\n\n\u201c\u2018I want to understand it,\u2019 she said. \u2018It seems as if it must mean\nsomething, and I can\u2019t see one bit of sense in it,\u2014just little green\nmeteors that won\u2019t go off. What are they for?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Little Bear knows,\u2019 said Andromeda, quickly. She was afraid his\nfeelings would be hurt to hear his meteors spoken of disrespectfully.\n\n\u201c\u2018Little Bear!\u2019 cried Cassiopeia; and the Star People fell back in a\ncircle and left him in the centre, the twinkles running over his fur as\nhe laughed inside and shook with excitement.\n\n\u201c\u2018Little Bear,\u2019 said Cassiopeia, \u2018did you do it?\u2019\n\n\u201cLittle Bear\u2019s eyes danced with delight; then he buried his nose in\nCassiopeia\u2019s dress.\n\n\u201c\u2018Of course he did,\u2019 said Perseus. \u2018We saw him hunting for them.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But what is it _for_?\u2019 she insisted.\n\n\u201c\u2018I know\u2014I know!\u2019 cried Draco. \u2018Don\u2019t you know what night thith ith?\nIt\u2019th the night Little Bear got hith Thtar!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018And he means it instead of a birthday!\u2019 cried Cassiopeia. \u2018Don\u2019t you\nremember? We said we\u2019d keep it if we knew when it was.\u2019\n\n\u201cAndromeda was on her knees beside Little Bear, her arms around him,\nwhen Orion and the Pleiades girls arrived\u2014each with a little green\nmeteor\u2014to know what it meant. Then how they did chatter!\u2014a regular Star\nPeople\u2019s chorus.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, wasn\u2019t that the cleverest Little Bear you ever heard of?\u2019 said\nMaia. \u2018Just think of his picking them all with his little nose, for us.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018And tucking them in where we\u2019d be sure to find them,\u2019 said Alcyone.\n\n\u201c\u2018I wish I\u2019d seen him traveling back and forth while we were asleep,\u2019\nsaid Orion. \u2018How many times do you suppose he went through my garden?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018If we knew how many he brought at onthe, we could tell,\u2019 said Draco.\n\u2018Jutht count how many there are of uth.\u2019\n\n\u201cIt seemed as if they never would make an end of petting Little Bear and\npraising his cleverness, and wondering what he thought they could do\nwith those silly, useless little meteors; but they were careful not to\nlet him hear them say they were of no use. But when they had said it all\nagain and again, Merope thought it was time to do something better.\n\n\u201c\u2018What shall we do for the party?\u2019 she asked.\n\n\u201cThey were troubled then; they would have liked to do something very\nparticular, and it was hard to think of anything without taking time to\nplan. Cassiopeia advised them to put it off, but\u2014to their\nastonishment\u2014Hercules objected. He wouldn\u2019t listen to any such word.\n\n\u201c\u2018We aren\u2019t going to do anything of the kind,\u2019 he said. \u2018After that\nLittle Bear has worked like that, and given something to every one of\nus, he\u2019s going to have his party the same night, and not be kept\nwaiting.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Very well,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018You plan it.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I will. Maybe it won\u2019t be much; but it\u2019ll be _now_.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018It\u2019s a surprise party, to have you plan it,\u2019 suggested Andromeda. \u2018And\nthey\u2019re always fun.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What shall we do?\u2019 asked Electra.\n\n\u201c\u2018We\u2019ll go to the Ship,\u2019 announced Hercules, \u2018and Little Bear shall be\nCaptain. I guess we can have a pretty good party, if we haven\u2019t been\nthinking about it.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Star-Ship was across the river; and Hercules often went there,\nbecause it reminded him of a voyage he had taken before he was a Star\nPerson, but they seldom went there together. So, only to go was a\nfrolic.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid they go in a procession?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cYes, just as they did on birthdays, and explained to the Zodiac People\nhow they were celebrating because Little Bear had his Star. He marched\nat the head, and you can fancy whether he felt proud. They pretended\nthey were a party of adventurers setting out on a cruise, and they took\nCastor and Pollux along with them.\n\n\u201cThey crossed the river by the tall poplar trees and came to the\nsplendid Ship. The stern went up high in a beautiful quirl, and the\nfigure on the prow was the head of a woman.\u201d\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s like the Jane Ellen,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cYes, but the ships were very different. This was the good ship Argo:\nCaptain Little Bear. And they made a wonderful voyage, because they were\nall good sailors on the Sea of Make-Believe. There were storms and\npirates; and they stopped at a cannibal island, off the coast of Borneo,\nrescued a captive damsel, who was just about to be eaten, and restored\nher to her parents in Scotland in three shakes of Little Bear\u2019s tail.\nThere never was a captain like him, nor such a happy Little Bear. And\nwhen they were tired of thrilling adventures, the Pleiades girls danced,\nand Castor and Pollux sang songs for them\u2014while the Ship took care of\nherself.\n\n\u201cOn shipboard, when the sea is smooth is a proper time to spin yarns;\nso, at the end of one of the dances, Maia said: \u2018Now somebody must tell\na story.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Hercules,\u2019 said Andromeda. \u2018This is his party.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018His surprise party,\u2019 corrected Orion. And they never were more\nsurprised than to hear him say:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018I will. What about?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Bears,\u2019 said Andromeda. \u2018Because it\u2019s for Little Bear.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018All right,\u2019 agreed Hercules. \u2018I\u2019d just as soon have it that as\nanything.\u2019\n\n\u201cThey settled themselves around him to hear the story. \u2018Now go on\u2014about\nthe bears,\u2019 said Andromeda, giving Little Bear a squeeze.\n\n\u201c\u2018Before there were any Star People in the Sky, it was full of bears,\u2019\nbegan Hercules.\n\n\u201c\u2018Little Bears?\u2019 asked Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018No. Great, big, horrible bears.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Ath big ath Major?\u2019 asked Draco.\n\n\u201c\u2018Bigger\u2014twice over; and bad. They\u2019d go roarin\u2019 and fightin\u2019 around, and\nthey\u2019d eat up a girl\u2014like Taygeta, here\u2014as quick as they\u2019d look at her;\nbut there weren\u2019t any girls here to eat.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Were they polar bears?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018No. They were\u2014were\u2014_China_ bears. The worst kind there is. There\nweren\u2019t any girls then, nor any Star People. There were just bears, and\nnot so many stars as there are now. There were just exactly one\nthousand; but there were meteors\u2014and the bears liked \u2019em better than\nanything.\u2019 (Little Bear gave a shiver of joy, and Hercules went on.)\n\u2018The meteors were big, too, bigger than any you ever saw. When they were\nripe, they were bigger than a bear\u2019s head; but sometimes they wouldn\u2019t\ngo off\u2014and that\u2019s what made the bears do what they did.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What did they do?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s what I\u2019m telling you,\u2019 said Hercules.\n\n\u201c\u2018S\u2014sh!\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018Don\u2019t interrupt. _When_ didn\u2019t they go off?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018For the biggest bear\u2019s party. There was going to be a party, and the\nbears all came; and not one of them would go off.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018The bearth?\u2019 asked Draco.\n\n\u201c\u2018S\u2014sh!\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018The meteors, of course.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018It thounded ath if he meant the bearth,\u2019 explained Draco; but Hercules\nwent on, undisturbed. It was remarkable how he could talk, now he was\nstarted. He looked right at Little Bear while he told his story, and\nLittle Bear looked back at him in perfect delight.\n\n\u201c\u2018There wouldn\u2019t one of \u2019em go off,\u2019 he repeated, \u2018and that made the\ngreat big horrible bears madder than hornets\u2014and they went tearin\u2019\naround, and they would have smashed all the meteors and eaten each other\nup; but there was one bear that was a funny fellow, and he used to make\n\u2019em laugh. And they liked that sometimes, when they were tired of\nfightin\u2019.\n\n\u201c\u2018So this bear said to the others: \u201cI\u2019ve thought of something. Let\u2019s\nhave some fun. I know what to do with these meteors.\u201d\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018S\u2014sh!\u2019 said Cassiopeia; and \u2018You wait,\u2019 said Hercules.\n\n\u201c\u2018So the other bears said: \u201cAll right. You tell us what it is.\u201d And the\nfunny bear told \u2019em what to do, and they all went to work, and they\ngnawed out the inside of the meteors. And they were bigger than the\nbears\u2019 heads\u2014so their heads went inside; and they gnawed \u2019em out until\nthere wasn\u2019t anything left but the thin shell; and they gnawed holes\nthrough that in places, besides\u2014just the way the funny bear told \u2019em to.\nAnd it was a cloudy night, and those bears all worked like sixty, and\nbefore morning they had just a thousand meteors all gnawed out.\n\n\u201c\u2018The next night began by being cloudy too; but about two hours after\ndark, it all cleared off. The clouds rolled up from one side, all\ntogether, like a curtain in front of a tableau. And the first man that\nlooked up at the sky fell right down in a fit, so everybody around had\nto attend to him. But when he began to come out of it, the rest of them\nlooked up\u2014just to see what the weather was; and every one of \u2019em yelled\nright out!\u2019\n\n\u201cHercules stopped and looked around at his audience. They were listening\nso breathlessly they couldn\u2019t even ask questions, and he must have been\nproud of his success. He paused to enjoy it, until Cassiopeia said, \u2018Oh,\ngo on!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What do you suppose made \u2019em?\u2019 he asked, looking at Little Bear,\u2014\u2018made\n\u2019em yell, I mean. In that sky, there ought to have been just one\nthousand stars, spread around equally; instead of that, there were one\nthousand _Chinamen\u2019s heads_, grinnin\u2019 at \u2019em, over each other\u2019s\nshoulders, all on one half of the sky.\u2019 (\u2018Oh!\u2019 gasped the Star People.)\n\u2018Those horrible bears had popped one star inside of each of those\ngnawed-out meteors, and arranged \u2019em like that.\u2019\u201d\n\n(\u201cLike the heads on the Chinese plates,\u201d whispered Phyllisy, and the\nPrincess twinkled at her with her eyes.)\n\n\u201c\u2018Made jack-o\u2019 lanterns of them,\u2019 said Cepheus.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes,\u2019said Hercules. \u2018One thousand jack-o\u2019lanterns, because that funny\nbear said it would be a joke.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I should think it was,\u2019 said Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018Well, it _wasn\u2019t_,\u2019 said Hercules. \u2018At least, it was the poorest joke\nthose bears ever tried. It did for them! Of course, people couldn\u2019t\nstand such goings on with the stars. So they said: \u201cThose bears have got\nto be cleared out; and we\u2019ll have some Star People to take care of our\nsky.\u201d So they picked out some people they knew were good at huntin\u2019 wild\nanimals and weren\u2019t afraid; and Orion and Perseus and I\u2014and some more of\nus\u2014came first; and we just cleared out those horrible bears that weren\u2019t\nfit to be here, and made this the right kind of a Starland for us all to\nlive in.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Did you drive them, every one, out?\u2019 asked Alcyone.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes,\u2019 said Hercules. \u2018At least\u2014almost; but there was just one little\nbit of a bear that didn\u2019t seem at all like the others,\u2019\u2014Little Bear\nwriggled with delight\u2014\u2018and Orion said to me, \u201cI guess we\u2019ll keep this\nlittle chap. He seems a pretty good kind of a bear.\u201d And I said, \u201cAll\nright. We\u2019ll try him; but if he goes to cuttin\u2019 up\u2014out he\u2019ll go, after\nthe others!\u201d\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But he didn\u2019t!\u2019 said Andromeda, squeezing him, \u2018and we couldn\u2019t live\nwithout him! Is one single bit of that story true?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018There\u2019s Little Bear, to prove it,\u2019 said Orion. And it was not fair to\nask; for it was an absorbing story while it lasted, and that\u2019s more than\ncan be said for a great many stories,\u201d finished the Princess.\n\n\u201cNot yours, Dearie,\u201d said Miss Phyllisy. \u201cYours are always as good as\nthat\u2014and better.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey interrupt just like us, don\u2019t they?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cJust as we\u2019re interrupting now,\u201d said Phyllisy. \u201cWhat came next,\nDearie?\u201d\n\nShe was looking off, over their heads, at the sky beyond the treetops;\nshe looked back quickly, smiling at the Others. \u201cNext, Miss Phyllisy?\nNot very much. When the laughter and talk about the story had died away,\nevery one sat quiet, a little tired and ready to be serious\u2014and they\nfell to talking about the Ship.\n\n\u201c\u2018Isn\u2019t she beautiful?\u2019 said Celeno. \u2018Wouldn\u2019t you love to see her\nsailing?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We shall, some time,\u2019 said Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018Do you really believe it?\u2019 asked Maia.\n\n\u201c\u2018Surely,\u2019 said Castor. \u2018She\u2019s lighter now than she used to be.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018A good deal,\u2019 agreed Hercules. \u2018I measure every once in a while, and\nshe keeps going up\u2014every year a little.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Sing the song about it, Castor,\u2019 said Andromeda. But he didn\u2019t,\nbecause Draco exclaimed suddenly: \u2018It\u2019th going to clear!\u2019\n\n\u201cThey had forgotten all about the weather!\n\n\u201c\u2018Goodness!\u2019 cried Cassiopeia. \u2018I do believe it is! And we\u2019ve all that\nway to go! Come this second, or we\u2019ll be caught in it!\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd, just as we\u2019re going to scurry in before that big black cloud\ncatches us, those careless Star People had to scamper, laughing all the\nway, back to their places, to be there before the clouds drifted away.\nThey were lucky that it cleared so late. All they lost of the party was\nCastor\u2019s song about the ship. And they knew it as well as he did.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut we don\u2019t know it,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\nPat twisted her eyebrow and glanced up for an instant. \u201cIf we go now, we\ncan\u2019t scurry. It won\u2019t come soon enough. You can tell it.\u201d\n\nThe Kitten looked up, too, weatherwise. Then she folded her hands very\ncomfortably in her lap. \u201cIt truly won\u2019t,\u201d she said. And the Princess\nbelieved her, and leaned back once more in the flowery chair.\n\n\u201cI\u2019d like to sing it to you,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause it\u2019s such a pretty\nsong, and it explains what they meant by the Ship\u2019s growing lighter.\u201d\n\nThe wind of the shower stirred the plumes of asters behind the\nPrincess\u2019s head while she sang; but even when the song was ended they\nweren\u2019t obliged to scurry. So they waited a little longer for an excuse\nto scamper, because they wanted to.\n\nTHE SONG OF THE SHIP\n\n \u201cI\u2019ll build you a palace of gold, my dear,\n With diamond knobs for its doors;\n With banqueting-halls,\n And rooms to give balls,\n And thistle-down rugs on the floors.\n And other splendors untold, my dear,\n Shall be yours. When I once begin\n To build the palace, it won\u2019t take long.\u201d\n \u201cOh, when?\u201d\n \u201cWhen my ship comes in.\u201d\n\n \u201cWould you ride in an ivory chariot, my dear,\n With steeds that are swift as the wind?\n Six zebras shall stand\n To wait your command;\n Then, away!\u2014and leave dullness behind!\n Their harness of silk all a-tinkle with bells\n Of crystal, makes musical din.\n They shall surely be yours, if you\u2019ll say but the word.\u201d\n \u201cBut _when_?\u201d\n \u201cWhen my ship comes in.\u201d\n\n There\u2019s a Ship that is freighted with heart\u2019s desires;\n Fast moored \u2019midst the stars she must lie,\n Till the last, least weight\n Of greed or of hate\n Shall out of her cargo fly.\n When the wish of each heart is gentle and kind,\n With no taint of a selfish sin,\n Then\u2014light as a dream\u2014the buoyant Ship,\n The Ship from the Stars shall come in!\n\n\n\n\n X\n TRAVELERS\u2019 TALES\n\n\nThere came a frost one night, and it was most exciting in the morning to\nsee the bewitchments everywhere. Sometimes it was whole trees and rows\nof trees solid gold, and sometimes it was only one tiny branch blazing\nred by itself out of plain green. It was joyful surprises every minute\nto walk in it. They filled their hands with leaves, more than they could\nhold, gathered one by one\u2014and each the most beautiful they had found.\nThe Others gave them to the Princess until her hands were brimming; then\nthey filled their own, but they were still for her.\n\nBefore they could believe it, they came to the hill that was the round\ntop of the world. It was covered with short grass, very slippery to\nclimb but worth while, for from it they could see World-without-end, and\nOcean. There were mountains, far away, on three sides, and on the\nfourth\u2014also far away\u2014was the Ocean, set up on edge. The sharp top line\nof it came opposite, but everything was below them, with long slopes\ngoing wide, and they were up in the middle, directly under the deep blue\nsky. And they could see frost-bewitchments over all the land.\n\nOn the face of the very blue sea were tiny white flecks that were ships.\nThey looked as if they were climbing up, or slipping down, on account of\nthe sea being set up on edge.\n\n\u201cSuppose this,\u201d said Miss Phyllisy to Pat and the Kitten (the Princess\nwas looking off, thinking: \u201cWhat if the finest ship afloat were coming?\u201d\nand the Others wouldn\u2019t disturb her). \u201cSuppose this: Wouldn\u2019t it be\nfunny if a ship went straight up; and it climbed up until it came to the\nedge, and then kept going straight on ahead\u2014off into the air?\u201d\n\n\u201cBut it couldn\u2019t,\u201d said Pat. \u201cIt has to stick right on; and then it\nkeeps rounding over until it is curling under. It _does, truly_,\u201d she\ninsisted, though they didn\u2019t contradict her, \u201cbecause I\u2019ve done it\u2014when\nI came; and it goes right along and nobody would know, but still it is\ncurling under; and you would think it was going straight ahead,\nbecause\u2014I ought to know, because I\u2019ve been clear under, halfway around;\nand it\u2019s night there now. Now that is really true. _Honestly!_\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is the way it is, honestly,\u201d said the Princess, for she had heard\nall they said. \u201cYou can\u2019t get off. Straight ahead you go and seem to go\nand keep going; and back you come to the place you started from\u2014if you\ngo long enough, because you\u2019re tied down to it. But it\u2019s a beautiful old\nEarth to travel on, isn\u2019t it?\u2014and Starland to see besides.\u201d\n\n\u201cOrion could sail straight off in a Star-Ship,\u201d said the Kitten.\n\n\u201cOf course the Star People could go anywhere,\u201d agreed Phyllisy. \u201cHow far\ncould they go, truly straight ahead, Dearie?\u201d\n\n\u201cTo the other end of Nowhere, and be no nearer the end\u2014I should say. But\nthey don\u2019t go, because their Law says they are to stay in their own\nStarland.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen they\u2019ll be there at night,\u201d said the Kitten.\n\n\u201cWhere would they go?\u201d asked Pat.\n\n\u201cTo other Starlands,\u201d said the Princess. And that was a surprising\nanswer, because not one of them supposed there could be any others. \u201cThe\nStar People say there are,\u201d the Princess assured them, \u201cand I should\nthink they ought to know.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut how would they know, if they never go to them?\u201d Miss Phyllisy\nobjected.\n\n\u201cPartly by seeing. For instance, there are the Far-Away Isles\u2014two little\nfilmy streaks of light away down in the Southern sky, that look like\nscraps of the Milky Way. The Star People often talk about them; and from\ntime to time some bit of news comes trickling in about outside places,\nnobody knows how\u2014vague rumors. It made a story one time, news coming\nthat way,\u201d she ended, looking very attentively at a leaf in her hand,\nand turning it over to examine the back, as if she didn\u2019t know what was\nexpected of her!\n\nBut the Others were immediately disposing of their leaves where they\nwould be safe under stones, hopping and chirping like birds in a bush,\nto settle themselves on the smooth ledges of rock that came through the\nhill where it was thin on top, and were toasty warm from the sun. And\nthe Princess watched them, smiling to herself, but not saying a word\nuntil everybody was comfortable.\n\n\u201cAs I told you,\u201d she began, \u201cthere are often bits of news floating about\nin Starland\u2014a sort of impression of something, very vague, that\ncomes\u2014nobody knows how,\u2014comets, possibly. And nobody would depend on\nwhat they said.\u201d\n\nThe Others were very sure _they_ wouldn\u2019t.\n\n\u201cNeither would I,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cAnd perhaps that isn\u2019t the way it\ncomes. But it comes some way. Sometimes vaguer and other times more\ndistinct. This time, all at once, there sprang up a real, definite\nrumor: They were to have a visitor!\n\n\u201cOrion was the person who first spoke of it to the Pleiades girls. They\nwere dancing a pretty, twisty dance when he came strolling along and\ncalled to them:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Are you practicing to be ready for company?\u2019\n\n\u201cThey didn\u2019t catch what he said, and Taygeta would have stopped, but\nMaia wouldn\u2019t let them. So Orion waited and watched while they untangled\nand finished in a straight line; and he might have gone far to see\nanything so pretty as they were, in their gauzy gowns all a-glimmer with\ntiny stars.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now you may talk, if you like,\u2019 said Maia. \u2018Alcyone often makes a\nmistake in that, so I wanted to go straight through it.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What dance was that?\u2019 asked Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s one of the \u201cSailor\u2019s Knots,\u201d\u2019 said Taygeta. \u2018There\u2019s such a lot\nof them!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes,\u2019 said Alcyone, \u2018and they are a good deal alike and entirely\ndifferent. Any one might be mixed. You have to tie them up, first, and\nthen untangle them.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018She can do it perfectly well when she wants to,\u2019 said Maia. \u2018All our\nfamily know about ocean things; but any one can make her giggle and be\nsilly.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What was it you said as you came?\u2019 asked Merope, quickly. She had tact\nabout changing the subject.\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t remember. Nothing much,\u2019 said Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, it was,\u2019 said Taygeta. \u2018Something about company.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, yes. Haven\u2019t you heard?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Heard what?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Tell us\u2014quick!\u2019 They all spoke together; and they should have known\nbetter than to let Orion see how eager they were. It gave him a chance\nto tease.\n\n\u201c\u2018Why\u2014some one. Oh, I\u2019m sure you must have heard. You don\u2019t want me to\ntell it all over again?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, we do\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No, we haven\u2019t\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, don\u2019t be so mean\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Don\u2019t ask him,\u2019 said Maia. \u2018He\u2019s dying to tell.\u2019\n\n\u201cThen they said not another word, but stood in a lovely row, locking\narms and balancing on their toes, and looked at him; and Orion looked\nback at them. Then he pushed his lion\u2019s skin up over his shoulder and\nspoke to his dogs:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Come, Sirius! We\u2019d better go and get ready before the Stranger comes,\u2019\nand he turned to go. But there were seven girls to stop him, and they\nwere around him in a second.\n\n\u201c\u2018No, you shall not\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, Orion\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, _please_\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What is it?\u2019 they asked; and he _was_ dying to tell!\n\n\u201c\u2018I can\u2019t tell you so very much,\u2019 he said. \u2018But they say we are to have\na visitor from the Far-Away Isles.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Who says so?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Who is coming?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018When will he be here?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What is he coming for?\u2019 They were like seven interrogation points!\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t know,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018I don\u2019t remember who told me\u2014and I\u2019m not\nquite sure what. Everybody but you seems to know about it.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Did you ever know any one so tiresome?\u2019 asked Maia. And six Pleiades\ngirls said they never had, and \u2018We\u2019ll have to ask some one else.\u2019\n\n\u201cSo, off they went to try to find out what was going to happen; and how\nanybody knew about it.\n\n\u201cIt was a curious thing, but by the time they had talked with the other\nStar People, they were in the same state as Orion and all the others. No\none could tell quite where he had heard it, and no one knew exactly what\nhe had heard; but every one had a perfectly clear impression that a\nvisitor was coming from the Far-Away Isles.\n\n\u201cWhen they tried to talk a little more definitely about him, they did\nnot altogether agree. Still, there was a strong idea that he was young\nand splendid and handsome, of course; some one very distinguished in his\nown country.\u201d\n\n\u201cA prince, for instance?\u201d asked Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cMore than likely.\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018What do you suppose he is coming for?\u2019 asked Maia.\n\n\u201c\u2018Perhapth, becauth he\u2019th going to all the Thtar-Countrieth,\u2019 said\nDraco. \u2018He couldn\u2019t do that unleth he came here.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s so,\u2019 said Hercules. \u2018We\u2019re one of \u2019em.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018You\u2019re mistaken,\u2019 said Cepheus. \u2018He\u2019s heard about the prettiest seven\nsisters in Starland, and he wants to take his choice of them back with\nhim. You\u2019ll have to polish up your stars, girls, and dance your best for\nhim.\u2019 (That was his idea of a joke!)\n\n\u201c\u2018Indeed we _won\u2019t_!\u2019 said Electra, with her nose very high. \u2018We care\nnothing about him.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No,\u2019 said Alcyone. \u2018We won\u2019t do one thing!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, don\u2019t you put nonsense into their heads,\u2019 said Cassiopeia to\nCepheus. \u2018He\u2019s just coming to be friendly, and because he can; and I\nthink it\u2019s lovely. We are going to do everything possible to give him a\nfine welcome; and the girls will look just as pretty as they can, to be\na credit to us all.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I wish Merope\u2019s star were brighter,\u2019 said Celeno. \u2018Do you think there\nis anything we could do about it?\u2019\n\n\u201cThere was one thing they could do: they could talk! And they began that\nvery minute. It seems hardly possible that people could talk so much\nabout so little! No one had thought before that Merope was not quite as\nshe should be. If her star was faint and vanished when one looked hard\nat it, that was the way of Merope\u2019s star, and that was all there was\nabout it.\n\n\u201cBut now, with the thought of stranger eyes, they began to feel that\nperhaps it was extraordinary that she should be different from her\nsisters. And the more they thought and talked about it, the more\nimportant it seemed to be.\n\n\u201cEvery one had some suggestion to make, except poor Merope herself; she\nnever had given it a thought, and now she declared she didn\u2019t care.\n\n\u201c\u2018But _we_ care,\u2019 said Maia. \u2018It isn\u2019t creditable to our family. What\nwill the Stranger think, to see you different from us?\u2019\n\n\u201cSo they talked\u2014and talked\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201cWhy didn\u2019t they give her a star?\u2014like Little Bear?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cThey would have given it, gladly, but Merope wouldn\u2019t take it; and,\nwhat is more, none of them had a star of the right kind to give.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey\u2019re terribly particular about them, aren\u2019t they?\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cThey have to be,\u201d answered the Princess. \u201cBut not in the way they were\nnow. Those foolish people went on talking, and fixed their eyes and\ntheir thoughts on the star until they quite lost their senses, and it\nseemed the most calamitous thing that could happen\u2014that the splendid\nStranger should come from the Far-Away Isles and see Merope with the\npuzzling star above her forehead.\n\n\u201cOne night, at this time, Perseus came along by the river, and there he\nfound Merope sitting alone. She was thinking so deeply she didn\u2019t see\nhim until he was close beside her.\n\n[Illustration:\n\n HE FOUND MEROPE SITTING ALONE\n]\n\n\u201c\u2018Where are the rest of you?\u2019 he asked.\n\n\u201c\u2018Dancing somewhere; I don\u2019t know where. I came here to think.\u2019\n\n\u201cThat sounded pretty sad to Perseus, and he tried to say something to\ncheer her.\n\n\u201c\u2018I wouldn\u2019t worry about that star. You look all right.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I wouldn\u2019t mind for myself,\u2019 said Merope; \u2018but I\u2019m not going to\ndisgrace my family.\u2019\n\n\u201cIt was not long after this that the six Pleiades began to say: \u2018Where\nis Merope?\u2019 and then the other Star People said: \u2018Where can Merope\nbe?\u2019\u2014until the whole Sky seemed one great Question; and the nearest it\ncame to an answer was that Perseus had seen her sitting on the bank of\nthe river, quite downcast, but plainly resolved to do something.\n\n\u201cCassiopeia was so worried, she lost her temper.\n\n\u201c\u2018I hope you girls are satisfied _now_\u2019 she said. \u2018Persecuting that poor\nchild!\u2014and all for vanity. If anything has happened to her, I don\u2019t know\nhow you\u2019ll forgive yourselves!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018You were in it, too,\u2019 observed Perseus; and she was.\n\n\u201c\u2018I know it,\u2019 she said, after a pause. \u2018That\u2019s how I know how they ought\nto feel.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t see how anything _could_ have happened to her.\u2019 said Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018Then where is she?\u2019 asked Perseus. And that was what no one of them\ncould answer; and Starland wasn\u2019t a happy place.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey could think she\u2019d run away,\u201d suggested the Kitten.\n\n\u201cOr drowned in the river,\u201d said Miss Phyllisy in a tragic voice.\n\n\u201cThey couldn\u2019t bear to think it was anything serious; but it was a\nmystery where she could be. They wandered from place to place, asking\none another what it could mean. And everywhere they ran across Little\nBear, roaming uneasy and disconsolate: even old Major was restless.\n\n\u201c\u2018You don\u2019t suppose the Stranger came and carried her off to the\nFar-Away Isles, do you?\u2019 asked Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018No, I do not,\u2019 said Orion, very positively.\n\n\u201c\u2018She wouldn\u2019t have gone! She wouldn\u2019t have left us,\u2019 Taygeta declared.\n\n\u201c\u2018Suppose he _took_ her?\u2019 insisted Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018_Nonsense!_\u2019 said Cassiopeia.\n\n\u201cBut when the night was gone without any sign of her, and a cloudless\nnight followed and there were only six girls in the group where there\nshould have been seven, what could they think? What could keep one of\nthe Star People from her place, unless something really had happened to\nher? And when they had borne her absence for two cloudless nights, their\nhearts had grown heavier and heavier, and they had almost given up any\nhope of seeing their dear Merope again.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd they couldn\u2019t hunt for her when it was clear,\u201d said Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cNo. They could only stand still and brood over it for two endless\nnights.\n\n\u201cThe third night came, cloudless still. The daylight grew dim until it\nwas nearly gone, and one after another, each star glimmered in its\nplace. When\u2014\u2014\n\n\u201cWho was it?\u2014coming\u2014far down the Sky?\n\n\u201cThe Star People neither spoke nor stirred while Merope came swiftly and\nslipped into her place just as the last gleam of daylight faded away.\nAnd if that didn\u2019t show how faithful and obedient they were, what\ncould?\u201d\n\n\u201cThey had to keep all their questions in them,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cYes, for a while. But about midnight thick clouds spread across the\nsky; and then Merope might have answered twenty questions at once, if\nshe had had so many mouths.\n\n\u201c\u2018Where have you been?\u2019 and \u2018Why did you go?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Has anything hurt you?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Didn\u2019t you know we would worry?\u2019 That was Cassiopeia.\n\n\u201c\u2018If you\u2019ll listen, I\u2019ll tell you all about it,\u2019 said Merope. \u2018But you\nall talk at once.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We won\u2019t,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018Be quiet, everybody! Tell us this minute.\nWho took you?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Nobody. I went myself.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s not the way to begin,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018Where did you go?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I went where the stars are made.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What did you do such a thing as that for?\u2019\n\n\u201cMerope\u2019s arm was around Little Bear, as he sat close beside her, and\nshe drooped her head until her chin touched his sharp little ear and\nbent it over.\n\n\u201c\u2018I wanted a new star,\u2019 she said very softly. \u2018Wait\u2014I\u2019ll tell you all\nabout it. I thought you were ashamed of me, and I didn\u2019t want to\ndisgrace you; and I thought and thought until I made up my mind to go\nwhere they were made, and get a new one.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But how could you be gone from your place?\u2019 asked Maia. \u2018Don\u2019t you\nknow it\u2019s been clear weather?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes,\u2019 said Merope. \u2018But I knew my star was so dull it wasn\u2019t likely\nI\u2019d be missed. I\u2019m not very important.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, you _are_\u2014just as important as any of us,\u2019 said Taygeta.\n\n\u201c\u2018And we\u2019ve been almost crazy, missing you,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018Even\nMajor had the fidgets. I think our feelings ought to be considered.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I know it. I\u2019m sorry now. I didn\u2019t think of that.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But tell us what you did,\u2019 said Orion. It seemed almost impossible to\nkeep them to the subject.\n\n\u201c\u2018I will. You know the place\u2014off that way,\u2019 and she pointed over the\nriver. \u2018I knew all I had to do was to keep going straight on until I\ncame there. So I slipped off quietly, when you were all busy.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018If I\u2019d seen you start, you wouldn\u2019t have gone,\u2014unless I went too,\u2019\nsaid Hercules. \u2018It wasn\u2019t safe\u2014a girl all alone.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But what happened? Did anything frighten you?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No. Only the dark, and cold.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018_Dark!_ Was it really _dark_, Merope?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Well\u2014I never heard anything like _that_!\u2019 said Cassiopeia.\n\n(\u201cThe reason they were so astonished is because it never is dark in\nStarland. There is always the starlight.\u201d The Princess answered the\nquestion the Others didn\u2019t ask, except by looks. \u201cOh\u2014h!\u201d they murmured.)\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, it was,\u2019 said Merope, \u2018part of the time. Not at first. After I\ncrossed the river I went straight on for a good while; it was about like\nthis,\u2019 she waved her hand. \u2018It was all right until it was dark\u2014\u2019 Then\nshe stopped talking just at the most interesting place.\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, go _on_, Merope!\u2019 said Alcyone. \u2018Where was it dark?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t believe I can explain it. It came all at once\u2014everywhere\u2014as if\nI had walked off the edge\u2014into the sea; only there wasn\u2019t any sea. There\nwasn\u2019t anything!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018There was _you_, wasn\u2019t there?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes. But I knew there wouldn\u2019t be, long.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I wish you would explain things as you go along,\u2019 said Cassiopeia.\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019ll try,\u2019 said Merope. \u2018But it\u2019s very perplexing. It was perfectly\ndark; you never saw any dark like it\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018You can\u2019t _see_ dark, ever,\u2019 said Orion. \u2018That\u2019s what it is.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s what I meant. You couldn\u2019t see it; even my own little stars\nwere out\u2019 (she glanced at her dress), \u2018and it was cold\u2014_deathly_! and\nnot a sound\u2014and I didn\u2019t know which way anything was. I was just colder\nand colder, and still\u2014and I knew, someway, I was going out.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Out where?\u2019 asked Hercules.\n\n\u201c\u2018Nowhere,\u2019 said Merope. \u2018Like a candle.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Goodness! Weren\u2019t you frightened?\u2019 asked Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes. And I tried to think what to do, but I couldn\u2019t. I kept growing\ncolder and stiller\u2014I couldn\u2019t move. Then I thought about all of you, and\nthere came a little warmth inside, and I knew the cold couldn\u2019t reach\nme.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Because love was stronger than cold or dark?\u2019 suggested Andromeda.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes; that was it. Nothing could put it out.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then how did you find your way out?\u2019 asked Cepheus, after a minute.\n\n\u201c\u2018That was easy. When I thought of you and home, something pulled me; so\nI knew which way you were.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then you came back,\u2019 said Taygeta.\n\n\u201c\u2018No, I didn\u2019t. I couldn\u2019t come without the star. And I thought if I\nkept going in the direction I started, I\u2019d come to the right place. So I\nkept on, the way I didn\u2019t want to go.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, I call that downright clever!\u2019 said Draco. \u2018It thowth what it ith\nto uthe your reathon.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Merope always was the brightest one of our family, really,\u2019 said Maia.\n\u2018What did you do then?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Kept on. And after I came out of the dark I was not very far from the\nnew stars.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh, tell us about them!\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018How are they made? Tell us\nevery single thing!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I can\u2019t,\u2019 said Merope. \u2018I\u2019m not good at understanding such things.\nThere were a great many\u2014all colors. I think they are made of something\nvery light\u2014and spread out\u2014it was like fog, in places; then, in other\nplaces, it was whirling\u2014I don\u2019t know what makes it begin to whirl: then\nit seemed to thicken up, when it whirled\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018How, thicken up?\u2019 asked Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018I can\u2019t explain; but the star-fog collected and drew together into a\nball, and that was the star. There were all sizes and kinds. Sometimes\nthere was one in the centre and more little stars whirling around in\nrings outside it. And trails of fog\u2014I never could describe it. You would\nhave to see for yourself. And they sang. Oh, it was beautiful!\u2019 Then she\nstopped again, to recall it; and that was trying to the others, because\nshe certainly did not make things very clear to them.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, Merope,\u2019 said Cassiopeia, \u2018you give your mind to it, and describe\nthings a little better. I wish I\u2019d gone myself. I could tell what I\u2019d\nseen and heard. What was the singing like?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018It wasn\u2019t like anything,\u2019 said Merope. \u2018That\u2019s why I can\u2019t tell you.\nIt was quite, quite beautiful. Every star\u2014when it whirled\u2014seemed to have\nits own song\u2014\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Like tops?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018Perhaps, a little\u2014\u2019 said Merope, doubtfully; \u2018and all the songs made\none; and\u2014I don\u2019t know what it said, but I think\u2014\u2019 then she hesitated.\n\n\u201c\u2018_Go on!_\u2019 said Maia.\n\n\u201c\u2018I think it said, they were glad they were alive.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Of course,\u2019 said Cassiopeia. \u2018Then what?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then it was time for me to come home.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Didn\u2019t you dread coming through the dark place again?\u2019 asked Electra.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes. But I knew I could get through. And it wasn\u2019t so hard as going;\nall I had to do was to come the way I wanted to. So I just came.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But, Merope,\u2019 said Andromeda, \u2018where is your new star?\u2019\n\n\u201cThen every one of the Star People looked at Merope, and saw\u2014what not\none of them had noticed before, they were so glad to have her back\u2014her\nown, strange, vanishing star still glinted above her forehead.\n\n\u201c\u2018Couldn\u2019t you find the right kind?\u2019 asked Taygeta.\n\n\u201c\u2018Weren\u2019t you allowed to have it?\u2019 asked Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018Did you lothe it, coming back?\u2019 asked Draco.\n\n\u201c\u2018Answer, Merope!\u2019 said Cassiopeia.\n\n\u201cMerope looked confused, and she bent over Little Bear once more (he was\na very convenient Little Bear), but she had to speak.\n\n\u201c\u2018There were plenty of stars,\u2019 she said slowly, \u2018and I might have taken\none, but when I saw them\u2014all so splendid\u2014they didn\u2019t seem like me; and\nthen I thought you all loved me, and I knew you didn\u2019t care really, for\nthe star; and I liked my own best. So\u2014I just came home.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We\u2019re glad, Merope,\u2019 said Andromeda. \u2018We love you best like this.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd every one of the Star People felt the same.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe do too, Dearie,\u201dsaid Phyllisy. \u201cThat was the best ending.\u201d\n\nPat and the Kitten wriggled and nodded, and the Princess smiled at them,\nbut she held up her finger for them to wait for the very end.\n\n\u201cThen it was Merope\u2019s turn to ask a question. But it didn\u2019t occur to her\nuntil a little later.\n\n\u201cThe sisters were dancing\u2014the very prettiest and most twirly of the\n\u2018Sailor\u2019s Knots\u2019\u2014and Merope was the centre of the twist, when she\nstopped short and asked:\u2014\n\n[Illustration:\n\n THE SISTERS WERE DANCING\u2014THE VERY PRETTIEST AND MOST TWIRLY OF THE\n \u201cSAILOR\u2019S KNOTS\u201d\n]\n\n\u201c\u2018When will the Stranger be here?\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Star People looked at each other in complete astonishment. They had\nforgotten all about him.\n\n\u201c\u2018He isn\u2019t coming,\u2019 said Orion, after a pause.\n\n\u201c\u2018How do you know he isn\u2019t?\u2019 asked Hercules.\n\n\u201c\u2018The same way we knew he _was_,\u2019 answered Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019d jutht like to know who thtarted that thtory,\u2019 said Draco. \u2018I\nbelieve it wath a comet!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018So do I,\u2019 said Cassiopeia.\u201d\n\n\n\u201cTruly was it?\u201d asked the Kitten.\n\n\u201cWhat do you think?\u201d asked the Princess.\n\nThen all the questions they had kept inside of them began to come out,\nand they lasted down the hill\u2014very jerky, on account of having to run or\nslip\u2014and most of the long way back. But there was time beside to gather\nmore leaves to take the place of those they had forgotten and left safe\nunder small stones on the hill-top!\n\nThere were thousands and thousands of them fallen, too beautiful to pass\nover, so it was just as well.\n\n\n\n\n XI\n TORQUILLON\u2019S LAIR\n\n\nPrecisely when the clock had struck three there came three raps on the\ndoor. (There had been shuffling, whispering noises, and a squeak like a\nmouse before, very small, but different from the sound of the rain\nagainst the windows.)\n\n\u201cCome in!\u201d said the Princess; and there entered the very ones she\nexpected to see, because it was an appointment.\n\nThe first thing, she wanted to ask them if they didn\u2019t think it would be\ncomforting to have a fire in the fireplace, to look at.\n\nThe Others instantly thought it would. Miss Phyllisy shivered her\nshoulders when she thought it, and the Kitten shivered hers when she saw\nMiss Phyllisy. But Pat did not shiver, because none of them was truly\nchilly, only it was such a disconsolate day, with cold gray coming in at\nthe windows and the corners dark, and large doleful brown leaves hanging\nsodden from a branch and beating back and forth in the rain.\n\nThe Princess was sure they would feel that way about the fire, and she\nthought they wouldn\u2019t mind the trouble of starting it themselves, it was\nso jolly to see the first blaze. And they didn\u2019t mind in the least; they\nloved it.\n\nIt was laid ready\u2014large logs and small pieces to kindle it, but they\nwere very busy for several minutes, changing the small pieces as Miss\nPhyllisy wanted them, because she had a talent for fires.\n\nWhen it was arranged to suit her, the Kitten struck the match and\nlighted the paper\u2014and they all stood quite still while a flame stole\naround, weaving in and out, and the blackened paper drew up where it\npassed. A round puffing smoke rose above and sharp red tongues flipped\nout at the top\u2014a fine crackle began to sound\u2014then came a broad roar. The\nnext minute flames were wrapping around the great logs, the whole length\nof them, and blazing up the chimney, and the room to the farthest corner\nand across the ceiling was full of moving firelight, with little fires\nwinking from everything shiny in it\u2014even the raindrops chasing down the\npanes. It was surprising, the change it made. Now, the miserable day\noutside only made them more cosy and contented, here by Miss Phyllisy\u2019s\nbeautiful fire, where their Princess sat ready to tell them a most\nespecial story that she would love to have them hear. But, as Prudence\nsaid, it wouldn\u2019t be wise to begin while the fire needed attention, and\nthere was no hurry. So they watched the first blaze pass off; then the\nlogs settled and fell apart, and they poked them and put on one more,\nand Pat set the fender in place.\n\nThe new log sputtered a minute before the blaze began to eat it. They\nwatched a few minutes longer, to be sure it was all right; and it was.\nThe Princess said she never had seen a more satisfactory fire,\u2014and\nlikely to last.\n\nSo Pat and the Kitten curled up in the pillows on the broad couch in the\ncorner near the fireplace, and Phyllisy sat on a stool at the end of the\nhearth, where she could reach the poker without interrupting, if it\nshould be necessary. The Princess was in her large chair, drawn up a\nlittle way off. The rings on her clasped hands glittered, and there was\na big rosette on the toe of her slipper, pointed out toward the glow.\nThe firelight shone in her eyes and they looked very joyful, and her\nlips were smiling before she began to speak.\n\n\u201cThe Jane Ellen,\u201d said the Princess softly, making the name long, as if\nshe liked to say it, and the Others wriggled as if they liked to\nhear,\u2014\u201cthe Jane Ellen was a very busy ship, and made important journeys,\ncarrying splendid cargoes from port to port; but she sailed so fast when\nshe was going straight on that the Captain always had time to stop on\nthe way to attend to any little thing that needed it, or to be obliging\nand kind\u2014like the time when they arranged about the Sailor\u2019s Star.\n\n\u201cNow if you had sailed on the Jane Ellen on one of the most interesting\ncruises she ever made, you would have come to a place where a long point\nof land ran out for miles into the sea. The point ended in a great rock\nthat looked like the head and shoulders of a lion, coming out of the\nforest that covered the hills back of him, and roaring because he\ncouldn\u2019t get across to the point of a very large island that lay in the\nsea opposite. There was another great rock that made the point of the\nisland (as if they were two gate posts), and this rock was the head of a\nman, frowning and dark; and one would hardly know which he was angriest\nwith; the Lion, or any one who tried to pass through the gateway.\n\n\u201cBesides the large island, there were a great many smaller ones\u2014like a\nflock of ducks\u2014and between them the water was shallow. So ships that\nwanted to pass that way had either to go through the dark Gateway,\nbetween the Roaring Lion and the Frowning Man, or else turn away to the\nsouth and sail miles and miles out of their course, around that whole\nflock of islands. And a great many ships did want to go that way; for it\nled to a land where the pearls were as large as gooseberries and all\nlovely tropical things grew because they couldn\u2019t help it.\n\n\u201cIt isn\u2019t pleasant to have even a rock man look as if he would like to\nbite off one\u2019s bowsprit, or crowd one over into the jaws of a roaring\nlion; but they were only rocks with a good passage between, and no\ncaptain who was in the least bit of a hurry would have hesitated one\nminute, or even thought of sailing around those hundreds of islands on\ntheir account. But every captain who sailed the sea knew that, once\ninside that Gateway, he would come into the haunt of Torquillon, the\nWaterspout. And that was reason enough for any ship to go miles the\nother way.\u201d\n\n(Torquillon was a stranger to the Others, but they nodded as if they\nthought it was an excellent reason. The story was beginning in a way\nthat made them very quiet, not wanting to interrupt.)\n\n\u201cNow when the Jane Ellen passed that way, if the Captain were not on\ndeck and the Mate was commanding the ship, he liked to sail close to the\nGateway instead of taking the shortest way to go around the islands,\nbecause he was not so old as the Captain, and he never had had so much\nas a glimpse of Torquillon.\n\n\u201cThis time that I\u2019ve begun to tell you about, the Captain was taking a\nnap, and Taffy had things his own way as they came into that part of the\nocean.\n\n\u201c\u2018How\u2019s the wind, Quartermaster?\u2019 he said to the man at the wheel.\n\n\u201c\u2018Sou\u2019west-by-south, sir,\u2019 answered the Quartermaster.\n\n\u201cTaffy looked up at the sails and the clouds and out over the sea\u2014as if\nhe were making up his mind, instead of knowing all the time what he\nmeant to do! Then he said to the Quartermaster:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Keep her as she is until we reach this point,\u2019 and he made a little\nmark on the chart, right near the large island; \u2018then we\u2019ll make a long\nrun to the south.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Ay, ay, sir,\u2019 said the Quartermaster. But when the Mate turned away to\nwalk for\u2019ard, he drew up one side of his face so it was all bias, and\nwinked at the Bos\u2019n!\n\n\u201cTaffy went into his own cabin, and came out again with a long spy-glass\nin his hand. He walked to the foot of the foremast-shrouds and rested\nthe spy-glass in the ratlines to steady it, and looked toward the place\nwhere the Gateway led into Torquillon\u2019s Lair.\n\n\u201cAnd the Jane Ellen was sailing so fast that he hadn\u2019t been looking long\nbefore he saw a little gray hump on the edge of the water, that he knew\nwas the large island. Then he put down the glass and waited a little\nwhile. The next time he looked, both the island and the mainland showed\nplainly, with a little, little gap between.\n\n\u201cBut he never could spend much time doing what he liked without being\ninterrupted, so very soon he put down the glass and went below to see\nwhy Tom Green hadn\u2019t polished the binnacle.\n\n\u201cWhile he was gone the Jane Ellen kept sailing on; and by the time he\ncame back the Gateway showed even without the glass. And when Taffy had\nthe glass steady once more and looked through it, he saw a dark speck on\nthe water, outside the Lion\u2019s head. He looked for a moment, then he\ncalled, \u2018Bos\u2019n!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Ay, ay, sir,\u2019 said the Bos\u2019n, coming up. Taffy handed him the glass.\n\n\u201c\u2018See what you make of that?\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Bos\u2019n took the glass and looked carefully. Then he rubbed the small\nend with a loose fold of his shirt, and looked again.\n\n\u201c\u2018It looks to me like a brig, sir. She\u2019s hove-to; and she\u2019s lost some of\nher riggin\u2019,\u2019 he said.\n\n\u201cTaffy took the glass, and while he was looking, who should come along\nbut the Captain! He had just stepped out of his cabin, and was surprised\nto see the island so near.\n\n\u201c\u2018Why are we here, Mr. Morganwg?\u2019 he asked. \u2018Aren\u2019t we out of our\ncourse?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We are, sir, a little,\u2019 said Taffy. \u2018But that\u2019s because the wind is\nsou\u2019west-by-south. I thought we\u2019d make better time this way.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018And go by that Gateway, too,\u2019 said the Captain; and he looked at the\nBos\u2019n and laughed. The Bos\u2019n laughed too, so Taffy felt a wee bit\nfoolish, and he thought he\u2019d rather talk about something else. So he\nsaid, \u2018There\u2019s a ship lying over there, in distress.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Let me see,\u2019 said the Captain, taking the glass. \u2018Sure enough! We must\ngo and see what is the matter.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cEverybody knew he wanted to go, didn\u2019t they?\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cEverybody,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cBut they were all eager, now, to go to\nthe rescue.\n\n\u201cSo the Jane Ellen sailed on fast, and drew nearer and nearer to the\nbrig; and when they were near enough to see, she was a sight!\n\n\u201cSome of her rigging was gone, and halyards and bowlines and braces and\nall kinds of ropes and sails were trailing in the water; and a flag of\ndistress flip-flip-flipping in the breeze over it all.\n\n\u201cIt was the Reindeer brig, and her captain was a friend of the captain\nof the Jane Ellen. So when they were hove-to, beside the Reindeer, the\nCaptain\u2014with the Mate standing by\u2014was very glad to welcome his friend on\nboard.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, tell us all about what has happened to the Reindeer,\u2019 he said.\n\n\u201cThe captain of the brig was a short man with bright black eyes, and he\n_hated_ to wait for anything. When he wanted a thing, he wanted it that\nvery minute; and when he sent a man on an errand he often went after him\nbefore he had time to come back, because it seemed so long to him. His\nname was Gryller, but Skipper seemed to suit him exactly, so he was very\nseldom called Captain Gryller.\n\n\u201cWhen he came aboard the Jane Ellen, he could hardly wait for the proper\ngreetings to be over before he began to tell his story. He spoke very\nfast; the words pattered, clean, and there sounded a great many _rr_\u2019s\nin them.\n\n\u201c\u2018It\u2019s that Waterspout!\u2019 he said. \u2018He\u2019s played the mischief with my\nrrigging!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What? Torquillon?\u2019 asked the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018Certainly. Did you ever hear of any other waterspout hereabouts? I\ndidn\u2019t. He took my main-to\u2019gal\u2019n\u2019mast at the first whack!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But where was he?\u2019 asked the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018Chasing _me_!\u2019 said the Skipper, indignantly.\n\n\u201c\u2018Out here?\u2019 asked the Captain, perfectly surprised. And he looked at\nthe Lion and the Man, to see if Torquillon were peeping out.\n\n\u201c\u2018No!\u2019 exclaimed the Skipper, loudly. \u2018Inside.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018_Inside!_\u2019 said the Captain, even louder. \u2018What were you doing there?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Going through, of course!\u2019 shouted the Skipper. \u2018Do you suppose I was\ntrying to anchorr?\u2019 and he almost danced on the deck, he was so\nimpatient.\n\n\u201cThe Captain looked at him. Then he said in his ordinary voice:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018We\u2019re neither of us deaf, and there isn\u2019t a gale of wind; and will you\nplease begin at the beginning, and tell me what you did do?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s just what I was trying to do; but you interrupted.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Because you began in the middle.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018How could any one begin in the middle? The place where you begin _is_\nthe beginning!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Well, what made you go through there, anyway?\u2019 asked the Captain. (He\nwasn\u2019t quite sure whether the beginning was the middle or the end or the\nother end, he felt so tangled up.)\n\n\u201c\u2018I didn\u2019t go through,\u2019 insisted the Skipper. \u2018Didn\u2019t I just tell you?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then, will you tell me what you did do?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I starrted to go.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Why?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Why does a hen run across the road?\u2019 asked the Skipper.\n\n\u201c\u2018To get to the other side,\u2019 answered the Captain; and, \u2018Because she\ncan\u2019t go \u2019round it,\u2019 said Taffy.\n\n\u201c\u2018Which is it?\u2019 asked the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018Both,\u2019 said the Skipper. \u2018I wanted to get to the other side, and I\ndidn\u2019t want to go around all those islands. It\u2019s ridiculous, with that\ngood passage through, to go miles out of the way because of that\nWaterspout\u2014and I hadn\u2019t the time to spend.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t see that you\u2019ve saved very much,\u2019 said the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018I should have\u2014if I\u2019d gone through. It\u2019s all very well for you; but\nevery ship is not as fast as the Jane Ellen. Anyway, I made up my mind\nto try, and I got halfway through before that fellow caught me. But then\nhe did smash me up like kingdom-come! and I had to box-haul her, and\ncome back.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What do you want to do now?\u2019 asked the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018I hoped a ship would come along and let me have some extra spars to\nmake the Reindeer ship-shape; and then\u2014I\u2019ve got a Plan;\u2019 and he stopped,\nand looked very mysterious and important.\n\n\u201c\u2018Are you going in again?\u2019 asked Taffy, hoping he would say Yes\u2014and he\ndid.\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, I am. And you\u2019re going too.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t know whether I am, or not,\u2019 said the Captain. \u2018What for?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I want to bottle up that Waterspout, and clear that passage so ships\ncan go through there safely.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018You don\u2019t want to do much!\u2019 said the Captain. \u2018Have you thought how\nyou could do it?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, I know all about it. It\u2019s no use to run him down; for he just\nspills and comes up again; and you can\u2019t tie him up. But I noticed,\nabout halfway through the passage there is a little island. It\u2019s hardly\nlarge enough to call an island\u2014just a flat-topped rock, not much above\nthe water. In that rock there is a deep hollow. Now, I think we might\nlead Torquillon such a chase that he would trip over the island and\nspill into the hole. Then we could cover him over, quick, with a big\ntarpaulin, and afterward roof him in solid, so he never could get out.\nDon\u2019t you think that would be worth spending a little time to do?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes,\u2019 said the Captain. \u2018If we could do it.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We can\u2019t, of course, if we don\u2019t try!\u2019 said the Skipper. \u2018Will you do\nit?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018One thing at a time,\u2019 said the Captain in that sensible way that is so\nannoying when one has an idea. \u2018We\u2019ll rig the Reindeer first\u2014and\nconsider about it.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd that was all he would say, though it seemed as if the Skipper\ncouldn\u2019t stand it, not to have it settled that very minute. But the\nCaptain lent him some extra spars and his ship\u2019s carpenter and some men,\nand they set to work; and before they knew it, almost, the Reindeer was\nship-shape again, and looked as good as new.\n\n\u201cExcept the Jane Ellen\u2014that was a full-rigged ship anyway\u2014there wasn\u2019t a\nprettier little brig on the high seas. Captain Gryller had had her\npainted brown, dappled with lighter spots on her sides and two large\nlight spots on her stern, because he meant to call her the Reindeer. And\nhe didn\u2019t care whether that was like a reindeer or a moose or a stag or\na wapiti, or none of them; he liked it that way.\n\n\u201cWhile they were working, the Captain considered. And the more he\nconsidered, the more he didn\u2019t know whether it would be one bit of use;\nbut the less he wanted to go sailing away around all those islands\nwithout trying to bottle up that waterspout and clear the passage for\nall the ships that should come after.\n\n\u201cAnd Taffy never considered a minute. He didn\u2019t know, and he didn\u2019t much\ncare, whether they could bottle up anything, or not; he thought only,\nsome way or other, he _must_ go in at that Gateway between the Lion and\nthe Man, and see what was inside. So when the Captain called him into\nhis cabin to consult with him, I think you can guess what kind of advice\nTaffy gave.\u201d\n\n(The children looked as if they could very easily. They would have given\nthe same themselves.)\n\n\u201cWhen the Skipper came aboard for his answer, he found there was no\npersuasion needed; but they could begin at once to lay their plans very\ncarefully for what they should do when they were once inside. The\nSkipper drew a chart, the way he remembered it, and they laid their\ncourse, just how they would sail, and settled everything so that there\ncould be no mistake.\n\n\u201cAt last the Captain said: \u2018There! I think that\u2019s all. And we can make a\nstart the first thing in the morning.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018_To-morrow morning!_\u2019 shouted the Skipper. \u2018Shiver my timbers! Do you\nthink we can wait forever?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Nobody wants to wait so long as that,\u2019 said the Captain. \u2018But it\u2019s too\nlate to go in to-day. You don\u2019t want to be caught in there in the dark.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Who\u2019s going to be caught?\u2019 asked the Skipper. \u2018I\u2019m not. And we\u2019re\ngoing in _to-day_!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018We\u2019re going in _to-morrow_,\u2019 said the Captain, just as firmly. The\nSkipper turned huffy.\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019d like to know who\u2019s planning this,\u2019 he said.\n\n\u201c\u2018You are,\u2019 said the Captain. \u2018And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s much of a\nplan\u2014whoever made it! And if you\u2019re so set, we\u2019ll go now,\u2014the time may\nbe as good as the plan,\u2014but it\u2019s too late!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018It\u2019s nearly the longest days in the year,\u2019 said the Skipper. As if\nthat wouldn\u2019t have made it all the easier to wait for morning!\u201d\n\n\u201cThen it was a wrong argument,\u201d remarked Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cYes; but he didn\u2019t think long enough to see it.\n\n\u201cSo, because he was so impatient, just after three bells of the second\nwatch of the afternoon had struck, the Jane Ellen and the Reindeer\nweighed their anchors and made sail, and advanced side by side, like two\nwhite swans, to the Gateway that led into Torquillon\u2019s Lair.\n\n\u201cThere were always clouds hanging over it; and they lowered dark over\nthe Frowning Man, so he scowled harder than ever as they passed out of\nthe sunshine that made their sails shine white as snowdrifts, into the\nshadow of the cloud that suddenly turned them gray.\n\n\u201cBut they sailed boldly by, close under his nose; and Taffy looked\ncuriously, to see what sort of place they had come into.\n\n\u201cIt was a fine open stretch of sea. The mainland curved back from the\npoint into a great bay, so large that the point at the farther side of\nit was only a distant gray streak. The flock of islands lay at the\nright, and separated it from the wide ocean. High mountains rose up on\nthe mainland, and the islands, too, were like mountaintops; but graceful\npalm trees and bananas and other lovely green things grew among the\ncraggy rocks.\n\n\u201cNow, as they passed into the shadow of the great dark cloud and sailed\nunder the nose of the Rock Man, a little wind, that lived in a cave on\nthe large island, cried:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Whoooooo-uuuuuu-eeeEEE\u2014!\u2019 and struck, first the Jane Ellen, then the\nReindeer, on the starboard bow, so that they heeled over to port; but\nthey went steadily on.\n\n\u201cThen another little wind, that lived in a rocky gorge on the point of\nland back of the roaring Lion, began to whisper:\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018Wh-h-i-i-is-sssss-sh-sSH\u2014!\u2019 and blew the Reindeer and the Jane Ellen\nalong from over the stern. The sails shivered and the sailors swung the\nyards; then the sails filled and the ships went right on.\n\n\u201cAnother wind lived in a beautiful valley, where a waterfall came\ntumbling down, like a white ribbon, over the edge of the cliff, and\nwhile the first two winds were still whispering and crying, this wind\nwoke up and shouted:\n\n\u201c\u2018Whooooooooo-eeeeeee-ooooop!\u2019 and came tearing over the green water,\nsplashing it up in white foam under his feet as he ran to meet the Jane\nEllen and the Reindeer, that were swinging on, down the wide channel.\n\n\u201cThen, wakened by the whispering and shouting and crying, other little\nwinds came racing out of their crannies on the islands and in the\nmountains, and all scurried after the Reindeer and the Jane Ellen, until\nthey couldn\u2019t tell, to save them, which was the lee and which the\nweather shore! And these winds were little, only compared with the great\nwinds that travel over the whole Earth. They were large enough for this\nland-locked sea; and the Jane Ellen and the Reindeer found them all they\ncared to meet. But the two ships were sailed so well they rode weatherly\nunder storm-sails; and by continually trimming sails and bracing yards\nand luffing and doing numberless other things that sailors know all\nabout\u2014and you and I don\u2019t understand a bit of\u2014they kept on their course\ndown the channel, looking on every side for Torquillon, the selfish\nWaterspout who claimed it for his own, and wouldn\u2019t let any one pass\nthrough. As if there weren\u2019t room for him and them too!\n\n\u201cThey had not gone far before the whistling of the winds, like barking\nwatch-dogs, roused Torquillon; and he raised his head to see who was\ncoming into his waters.\n\n\u201cThe Captain was sailing the Jane Ellen himself, so Taffy was free to\nwatch; and far ahead, just under a black cloud that hung very low, he\nsaw the dark water rise in a mound.\n\n\u201cThat was only for a moment, and it dropped back again. But the winds\nhad seen their Master; and\u2014as if he had called them to him\u2014they rushed\nfrom all sides, whistling and crying and whooping, and left the Jane\nEllen and the Reindeer with sails drooping in the sudden calm, while\nthey circled to the spot where Torquillon\u2019s head had pushed above the\nwater.\n\n\u201cAnd as they reached him he rose with one powerful leap from the waves,\nand caught the dark sagging cloud, pulling it down behind his head,\nswinging and twisting as the winds flung themselves upon him, and filled\nthe cloud that floated like a banner and served for a sail. And then he\ncaught sight of the two ships, and the chase began!\n\n\u201cDown the channel he came flying; and the Reindeer and the Jane Ellen\nwaited, side by side, their sails hanging idly in the dead calm, and the\nsailors all standing by the braces to be ready when the winds struck\nthem. And now Taffy had his wish; for no one ever had a better chance to\nsee a monstrous Waterspout.\n\n\u201cAs he whirled and twisted, his long trailing robes wound close about\nhis feet, then curved out again, smooth and black in the water, like the\ncurves of a lily-petal. They looked quite black to Taffy; but as the\nlight struck through the edges and thin folds, he saw that they were\ngreen\u2014like the green water under him. And following after, leaping,\nsnarling, jumping at the edges of his robes, the white foaming waves\njoined in the chase, and came rushing, whirling down on the two\nmotionless ships.\n\n\u201c\u2018Wh-iiii-sss-shoooouuuuuu-eeeeEEE\u2014!\u2019 shrieked the winds, and the next\ninstant Torquillon would have had them\u2014but just in time the sails\nfilled; and off flew the Jane Ellen to the right, and off darted the\nReindeer to the left, and left him hanging in the wind, because he\n\n[Illustration:\n\n DOWN THE CHANNEL HE CAME FLYING\n]\n\ncouldn\u2019t chase both at once, and didn\u2019t know which to follow first.\n\n\u201cBut it didn\u2019t take him long to decide. He had seen the Reindeer before;\nand it made him very angry to see that she had come back as good as new.\nHe swung his black banner high over his head, so that it caught the wind\nfrom the large island, and tore after the white spots on the stern of\nthe brown Reindeer, that showed plainly although it was beginning to be\ndusk.\n\n\u201cThe Captain had said it was too late to go in that night; and here was\ntheir work just begun, and very little more daylight to do it in, but he\ndidn\u2019t say, \u2018I told you so,\u2019 even to Taffy; but did his best to carry\nout the plan.\n\n\u201cWhen Torquillon was almost within reach of the Reindeer, he glanced\naside and saw the Jane Ellen slipping along down the channel, and\nseeming about to escape him altogether. With a howl of rage he turned\nand flew after her instead. Then the Reindeer had her chance, and she\nturned down the channel as if she were going to escape. So, crossing and\nturning, the two ships dodged under the nose of that angry Waterspout,\nwho was in such a rage it was very easy to bewilder him.\n\n\u201cAnd always they drew him nearer and nearer to the flat little island\nwith the hollowed rock where they planned to seal him up forever, when\nhe should have tripped into it.\n\n\u201cThe winds shrieked and screamed from all sides, and the clouds pressed\ndown, thick and black. But just before they reached the island, the\nsunset light broke through a narrow rift in the clouds, and shone\nthrough the gap between the Lion and the Rock Man; and all the foaming\ncrests of the waves and the edges of Torquillon\u2019s robes turned to fiery\ngold; and down his dark sides and in the black curves about his feet\nwere blood-red streaks; and the great sable banner over his head burst\ninto crimson flame!\n\n\u201cThen the Jane Ellen passed the island, and Torquillon tore after in his\ncrimson fury, never heeding where he went\u2014and the rock directly in his\npath. The Reindeer scudded after, the sailors on both ships standing by\nto lower the boats, with the wide tarpaulin ready to cover him over. And\nthe Skipper fairly danced up and down on the deck in his excitement and\ndelight to think how near they were to success. And Torquillon was\nalmost on the rock!\u2014when up went his feet, and on went the flaming\nscarlet sail\u2014with the purple hollow on the side away from the sun\u2014and\ncarried him clean over, without even touching it; though the waves that\nfollowed crashed and boiled to the very top, and covered the rock from\nsight!\n\n\u201cThen the clouds closed in\u2014black and heavy\u2014and night had come almost in\na minute. And there were the Jane Ellen and the Reindeer in the middle\nof an inland sea, without a star to guide them, the winds raging and\nshrieking about, and a furious Waterspout at their heels!\u201d\n\n\nThe Princess stopped\u2014as if that could possibly be the end of it!\n\n\u201cOh, Dearie! You can\u2019t have the heart to leave them like that,\u201d Phyllisy\nremonstrated. \u201cWe\u2019re so excited.\u201d\n\n\u201cI\u2019m pretty excited myself, Miss Phyllisy,\u201d said the Princess. \u201cI\u2019d like\nto rest a few minutes. What should you say to a few chocolates? You\nmight look at the box, at least, if you don\u2019t care to eat them. It\u2019s a\nvery pretty one.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhere is it?\u201d asked Pat.\n\nWhen she brought it to the Princess, they all crowded around her chair\nand admired the outside of the box. Then she lifted the cover slowly, to\nshow the chocolates packed in rows of different shapes with crimpy\npaper, and little tongs to pick up the kind they wanted. And the\nPrincess let them go down to the under layers to see if they were\ndifferent.\n\nStill, they were very anxious to go on and find out what happened; and\nwhen the Princess had rested and Phyllisy had attended to the fire\u2014it\nwould have needed it soon any way\u2014they went back to their old places and\nthe Princess began again.\n\n\n\u201cYou know how Old Sol stays a little while every year in each of the\nHouses of the Zodiac?\n\n\u201cIt happened, when he glanced through the long slit in the clouds at\nTorquillon and the two ships, that he was making his visit to the Gemini\nBrothers; and that was very fortunate, because it gave him an idea.\n\n\u201cIt was only a glimpse he had of that chase, but it was enough to show\nhim that it was going to be hard times for the Jane Ellen and the\nReindeer unless something were done for them before it was too late. And\nCastor and Pollux were right at hand and able to do it, so it was the\nmost natural thing that he should send them.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd they\u2019re specially for sailors\u2014friends,\u201d remarked Pat.\n\n\u201cSpecially; Sol knew it. \u2018Now\u2019s your chance,\u2019 he said, \u2018you\nground-and-lofty tumblers. Tumble right down, or that wicked Torquillon\nwill have the Jane Ellen and the Reindeer made into kindling wood\u2014if\nthey don\u2019t run ashore first, in the dark.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe darkness came so suddenly on the ships when the clouds closed down\nin the West, that it was bewildering. And they were so surprised and\ndisappointed that Torquillon had not fallen into the trap they had laid\nfor him that they hardly knew what to do.\n\n\u201cFortunately, the same darkness that confused them confused him, too;\nbut it was not long before the chase began again. Now the ships had no\nthought of anything but of how they should escape: and whether it was\nbetter to go back or forward they didn\u2019t know. The darkness grew blacker\nand blacker, and they flew wildly back and forth\u2014until they had no idea\nwhere they were, nor where the entrance lay, and could only guess where\nTorquillon was by the shrieking of the wild winds.\n\n\u201cOnce he passed so close to the Reindeer that he nipped off her\nflying-jib-boom. But the flying jib was not set, of course, in that\nweather, so it didn\u2019t much matter; and he carried a trysail on the Jane\nEllen out of the gaskets with a crack like a cannon. Still they were\nmanaging to escape him, when, as the ships happened to be close\ntogether, and Torquillon was raging down the channel some distance away,\ntrying to find them in the darkness, Taffy heard a sound\u2014different from\nthe screeching of the winds in the rigging\u2014and it seemed to come from\nthe foremast of the Jane Ellen.\n\n\u201cAs he listened to the sound, like music, he looked up at the place from\nwhence it came, and above the ends of the topsail yards were two glowing\nflames of pure white fire that threw a faint light on the deck, and the\nmusic grew clearer to his ears.\n\n\u201cAnd in a moment, all the men on both ships were looking and listening.\nBut some could hear only the wind in the rigging and see two little\nlights hovering about the mast. Some could see and hear a little more;\nand Taffy,\u2014because he was a Welshman and had a young heart,\u2014more plainly\nthan all, saw, standing lightly on the yards, high, high in the air, the\ntwin brothers, Castor and Pollux! Young and strong, and with star-tipped\nspears in their hands and helmets on their heads with the white, flaming\nstar streaming from the top like a plume.\n\n\u201cThe Captain, who had a young heart, heard the music of their singing,\nthough he couldn\u2019t tell the words, but he looked at Taffy\u2014and his eyes\nwere shining, so the Captain knew he understood, and that the beautiful\nStar People wanted to save them, and that Taffy was the one\n\n[Illustration:\n\n STANDING LIGHTLY ON THE YARDS, HIGH, HIGH IN THE AIR, THE TWIN\n BROTHERS CASTOR AND POLLUX\n]\n\nto help them do it. So he said softly, \u2018Mr. Morganwg, you may take\ncommand.\u2019\n\n\u201cTaffy only nodded, he was watching and listening so intently. And the\nShining Brothers were singing:\u2014\n\n \u201cFollow through the darkness\n Where the Lion roars,\n Where the Rock Man, scowling,\n Marks Torquillon\u2019s shores;\n\n \u201cThrough the Gateway flying,\n From his fury free,\u2014\n Follow, Taffy, follow\n To the open sea!\n\n\u201cThey pointed their star-tipped spears and Taffy gave his orders: and\nfast and faster sped the Jane Ellen through the black waters, the\nReindeer following, led by the gleaming flames on her topsail\nyards\u2014though the Skipper couldn\u2019t hear a sound of the music nor see\nanything more than the little lights, because he wasn\u2019t a Welshman, and\nif he had a young heart, he was too impatient to listen to what it said.\n\n\u201cTorquillon, too, saw the little flames of fire, and saw how fast they\nflew, and he knew the ships were escaping. And with the winds howling\nand shrieking (they were hoarse by this time, you may believe, for they\nhad had no rest for two hours), and the waves snapping at his heels, he\ncame tearing once more up the channel\u2014after the Jane Ellen and the\nReindeer, that were flying for their lives!\n\n\u201cAnd when they reached the Gateway and slipped by the roaring Lion\u2019s\njaws, Torquillon was so close he couldn\u2019t stop himself, and dashed his\nwhole height against the towering rock!\n\n\u201cIt was like the crash of a hundred great breakers at once on a rocky\nbeach; and he slipped and splashed down the streaming rock, into the sea\nat the foot of it, while the Jane Ellen and the Reindeer passed safely\nout, to the singing of the Star Brothers:\u2014\n\n \u201cFollow, follow safely,\n To the open sea!\n\n\u201cThen the two flames were gone from the topsail yards, and the ships\ndropped anchor to wait for morning.\n\n\n\u201cBut don\u2019t you think the Star People were interested when Castor and\nPollux came back to their House in the Zodiac?\n\n\u201cThey were all waiting for them, and they listened, quiet as mice, while\nPollux told them (with Castor correcting him when he didn\u2019t tell it\nstraight) how they had saved the ships and escaped from Torquillon; and\nwhat a smash and tumble he had had at the end.\n\n\u201c\u2018And that\u2019s the end of _him_\u2019, said Cassiopeia.\n\n\u201c\u2018Bless you, no, it isn\u2019t!\u2019 said Castor. \u2018He doesn\u2019t mind a spill like\nthat. Of course it shakes him up, but he\u2019ll come up like a\njack-in-the-box.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Uglier than ever,\u2019 remarked Orion.\n\n\u201c\u2018Then he ought to be ashamed of himself,\u2019 said Cassiopeia.\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t thuppoth he had any bringing up,\u2019 said Draco. \u2018He doethn\u2019t\ntheem to have any mannerth.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Not a manner,\u2019 said Pollux. \u2018And he\u2019s too old to learn.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But he can\u2019t be allowed to be rude and selfish where polite ships want\nto sail,\u2019 said Castor. \u2018Taffy will wait, and we are going back to-morrow\nnight to teach him that.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018How?\u2019 asked Perseus.\n\n\u201c\u2018We want to talk with you about that,\u2019 answered Castor.\n\n\u201cSo they talked and they talked, and I\u2019m not going to tell you what they\nsaid; but this is what happened after they had finished talking.\n\n\u201cOrion went striding away on his long legs, with his sword jingling at\nhis side and the two dogs capering before him, until he said, \u2018Come to\nheel, Sirius! Heel, Procyon!\u2019 So they came to heel and the three walked\nfast along the Milky Way, through the star daisies, and at last they\ncame to the edge of a great dark hole. It might have been a small lake,\nbut there was no water in it, or, if there was, it was so deep down that\nit could not be seen. It seemed bottomless. No star-flowers grew around\nthe bleak margin; and you wouldn\u2019t wonder if you had been with Orion and\nfelt the cold that came from the black emptiness which he looked into.\n\n\u201cHe didn\u2019t spend any time looking, but he knelt by the edge, with Sirius\nand Procyon watching every motion from either side, where they stood\nalmost tumbling in. And they saw that Orion held in his hand two small,\ncurious-shaped flasks. He took from his pocket a ball of moonbeam cord,\nand made a slip-noose in the end of it and put it around the neck of one\nof the flasks. Then he lowered it into the depths beneath him, and he\nand the dogs watched it go down\u2014down\u2014until it was swallowed up in the\ndark: but still he lowered the fine shining cord that was like a thin\nshaft of light. After a time he began to draw it up again. And when he\nhad the flask in his hand, it was full of liquid, clear as crystal.\n\n\u201cHe put in the stopper\u2014quick\u2014and lowered the other. When that was filled\nhe wound up the cord, and he and the dogs came striding and capering\nback to the Gemini\u2019s House. They were looking for him, and Orion handed\nthem the flasks.\u201d\n\n\u201cThey couldn\u2019t go themselves unless Sol told them, could they?\u201d asked\nPat.\n\n\u201cOf course not, the Zodiac People,\u201d said Phyllisy. \u201cI\u2019m perfectly wild\nto know what\u2019s in those flasks, but I don\u2019t want you to tell, Dearie.\u201d\n\n\u201cShe will,\u201d said Pat.\n\n\u201cOf course, at the right time. Please go on, Dearie.\u201d\n\nThen the Princess went on:\u2014\n\n\u201cVery early the next morning Captain Gryller came aboard the Jane Ellen;\nand you never would have guessed, to see him, that it was his plan that\nhad been such a failure, and that they had come so near losing the ships\nand their own lives because he had insisted on going in so late. When he\nstepped on deck he looked about him, and was surprised to see that they\nwere not making ready to sail.\n\n\u201c\u2018I\u2019ve just come to say good-by,\u2019 he said to the Captain. \u2018We had a\nnarrow escape last night, didn\u2019t we?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, we did,\u2019 said the Captain.\n\n\u201c\u2018Well\u2014we\u2019ll have to go around the islands after all. I\u2019ve wasted too\nmuch time already, and I must be off.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Not yet,\u2019 said the Captain. \u2018We\u2019ve only half done our work\u2014not even\nthat\u2014and I\u2019m not going to leave until that channel is clear.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018But what\u2019s the use?\u2019 said the Skipper. \u2018We\u2019ll just risk our ships for\nnothing. You saw how we failed last night!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s because we didn\u2019t do it right,\u2019 said the Captain. \u2018Who helped\nus last night?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018The Star People.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Exactly. And they\u2019ll help us again. And the Jane Ellen is going to\nstay here to do it!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Then the Reindeer will stay, too,\u2019 said the Skipper.\n\n\u201cThat day the sailors and every one had a good rest, for it was very hot\nand the fight with Torquillon had been hard work, and they wanted to be\nfresh to begin again. So all they did was to make the Jane Ellen and the\nReindeer ship-shape, and wait for night and the Star Twins.\n\n\u201cWhen twilight came, the captain of the Reindeer saw the little flag\nfluttering from the peak of the Jane Ellen that said it was time to\nsail; and the two ships moved forward side by side, like soft gray birds\nin the gathering darkness.\n\n\u201cWhen they reached the Lion and passed into the shadow of the clouds\nthat hung low and black over Torquillon\u2019s Lair, it looked as if they\nwere about to enter an enormous cavern, and night fell all at once, but\nnot quite dark. For far as eye could see, the water was covered with a\npale greenish glow\u2014like phantom light. The crests of the little waves\ncrinkled and crisped up in faint flames, and the smoke of the Sea-fire\nrose where the forefoot of the ship cut through the black water and\nturned it back in ripples and streams of light.\n\n\u201cAll sailors know the phosphorescence, and Taffy had seen it often, but\nnever so much nor so beautiful. And over this lake of pale, floating\nlight the two ships sailed side by side, and the Mate of the Jane Ellen\nwas in command.\n\n\u201cAs they passed fairly between the Lion and the Frowning Man, the Wind\nfrom the Lion\u2019s side cried: \u2018Mmmmmmm-whooooo-uuuuu-eeeeEEE\u2014!\u2019 and rushed\nout upon them. Then all the other winds awoke and soon were screaming\nabout them; and with their voices Taffy heard the sound of music\u2014and\nthere on the topsail yard, poised light as two dragonflies, stood the\nlovely Star Brothers with the streaming white flame-feathers in their\nhelmets.\n\n\u201cThey pointed straight ahead with their star-tipped spears and sang\ntheir brave song:\u2014\n\n \u201cOnward, and onward, fly fast o\u2019er the foaming wave,\n Onward, still onward, with never a fear;\n Meet the foe boldly, heed not though the wild winds rave;\n Over the Sea-fire points on the bright spear.\n\n \u201cOnward, still onward! Torquillon in all his might\n Whirling comes, swirling, hot rage in his heart!\n Vainly they fight, who \u2019gainst Right and the Stars fight,\u2014\n Cold shall he be ere his rage will depart.\n\n \u201cOnward, then, onward\u2014press forward to meet him;\n Torquillon comes raging!\u2014and coldly we\u2019ll greet him!\n\n\u201cThe straining ropes of the rigging hummed and sang with them as if the\nships were mighty harps; and they held their way steadily down the\nchannel in spite of the frantic winds, to meet Torquillon; and what they\nwere to do with him, they hadn\u2019t an idea, but they were sure Castor and\nPollux would show them when the time came.\n\n\n\u201cThat was a tremendous spill Torquillon had, just as he thought he had\nthe two ships that had defied him, where he could crush them the next\nminute. So he was furiously angry when he gathered himself together at\nthe foot of the rock; but at least he had taught them he was not to be\ntrifled with! He took himself off, far down the channel; and there he\nsulked and made himself perfectly miserable because he couldn\u2019t decide\nwhether he would rather have the ships come back, so that he could crush\nthem, or have them so frightened they never would try it again, nor let\nany one else.\n\n\u201cHe had fallen into a sulky sleep when the watching winds cried,\n\u2018WhiiiissssssshhhhhhooooouuuueeeEEE\u2014!\u2019 and he wakened and raised his\nhead as the winds from beyond him rushed by to meet the two ships.\n\n\u201cHe gave a scream of mingled rage and joy that called the winds to him,\nand, springing up, caught the floating banner that hung, always ready,\nover his head, and came whirling down the channel, black and furious and\nterrible to see! And the two ships came on steadily, never swerving.\n\n\u201cThe Sea-fire ran up and down, in and out of the folds of his trailing\nrobes in streaks of pale light, and curled on the edges of the waves\nthat foamed about his feet. So they came nearer and nearer\u2014and then they\nwere so close he towered above them, higher than the tops of the\nmasts\u2014and the next instant it would have been too late\u2014when Castor\ndarted like a dragonfly to the fore-royal yard of the Reindeer, and\npointed to the left with his spear, and at the same moment Pollux\nmounted to the fore-royal yard of the Jane Ellen, and pointed to the\nright with his spear, and the two ships turned to the right and the\nleft, and Torquillon went straight on to pass between them before he\ncould stop or turn himself.\n\n\u201cAnd as they swept by, the Twins raised their arms; and each held in his\nhand a curious-shaped flask, filled with a liquid, clear as crystal.\n\n\u201cThey flung it out, over Torquillon! and as it came from the mouth of\nthe flask, it spread and pushed and billowed, on and on, pulsing and\ncrowding in clouds of vapor; and the air grew cold\u2014cold\u2014so chill it\nseemed no living thing could stand against it.\n\n\u201cThe winds cried: \u2018Ughhhhhoooouuuuughhhhhh-h\u2014\u2019 and fled back to their\ncaves. But they carried some of the cold with them, and the monkeys and\ncockatoos shivered and sneezed in the trees as the frost-needles pricked\nthem. And some of them had bad colds the next morning.\n\n\u201cAnd as the ships swept by, almost within reach, and the vapor poured\nover him, Torquillon shrieked with rage and loosed his hands from his\nbanner, to catch them. It floated off; and Taffy, looking back from the\nJane Ellen, and every one on the two ships saw their enemy stand, his\nhands still lifted above his head, and the drapery of his robes hanging\nstiff about him\u2014shining and glittering in the calm moonlight like\ndiamonds and emeralds and sapphires\u2014no longer a terrible Waterspout, but\na glorious Iceberg, frozen to his hot, angry heart!\n\n\u201cAnd all the air was full of finest diamond\nfrost-needles\u2014drifting\u2014floating\u2014slowly settling about him and over the\ntwo ships\u2014until every spar and rope was coated with hoar-frost, and the\nsails and decks shone like silver; but the Star Twins were gone.\n\n\u201cThen all the clouds drifted away, and the dark blue sky of the tropic\nnight arched over Torquillon\u2019s Lair, with the throbbing stars looking\ndown; and the most beautiful thing they saw was that wonderful\nIceberg\u2014all his rage gone\u2014calm and shining in the tranquil sea.\u201d\n\n\nThe Princess\u2019s voice ceased. There was no sound, only a long-drawn\nbreath through the room, as if great music had just come softly to a\nclose.\n\nShe began again in a different voice\u2014talking: \u201cBut the Captain knew it\nnever would do to leave him there; for he would melt in the hot sun and\nbe as bad as ever; though he was frozen harder than any ice he ever had\nseen. So they didn\u2019t wait even for morning, but fastened ropes around\nhim and set off to tow him North. They didn\u2019t mind if it took a month\u2014it\nwas such a good thing to do. They carried him far up toward the North\nPole, and left him frozen fast in the ice. And he will never get away!\n\n\u201cNow ships pass freely through the wide channel that was Torquillon\u2019s\nLair; and since he has gone the clouds have left too, and the Rock Man\nhas forgotten to frown, and if the Lion roars, it is a roar of welcome.\nThe little winds caper and frisk around the ships until the channel\nseems the pleasantest spot in the ocean, and they are sorry to leave\nit.\u201d\n\nThe Kitten had her foot already off the edge of the couch, but she\nstopped, because the Princess leaned forward, with her finger up, to say\none more word, and mischief began to dance in her eyes. \u201cAnd,\u201d\u2014said the\nPrincess, \u201cif any one asks Taffy if he ever saw a Waterspout, his eyes\nshine and his white teeth, and he says, \u2018_Sure!_\u2019\u201d\n\nThen she opened her arms and the Kitten ran into them.\n\n\u201cI\u2019ll ask him,\u201d she said. \u201cWill he tell me? Will he come soon?\u201d She\nasked it so quickly, it was all one question, and her arm around the\nPrincess\u2019s neck pulled her head forward where the glow from the\nburned-down fire was on her face. It grew suddenly like a rose.\n\n\u201cI shouldn\u2019t be one bit surprised if he did,\u201d she answered.\n\n\u201cBut, Dearie-_Dearest_,\u201d said Phyllisy, perched on the arm of the chair\nand playing with the Princess\u2019s fingers, \u201cI wish you\u2019d just explain\nthis: You said it was so long ago\u2014Taffy and all\u2014nobody can remember\nwhen. I thought it was\u2014not exactly \u2018Ancient,\u2019 you know, but \u2018Once upon a\ntime\u2019?\u201d\n\n\u201cThat is perfectly true,\u201d said the Princess, soberly. \u201cBut you know\u2014\u201d\n\n\u201cYes?\u201d prompted Miss Phyllisy.\n\n\u201cYou know, Taffy had a young heart? It seems to me, he must have been\nalways.\u201d\n\nThat kept everybody silent for a moment, thinking about it. Then Pat\u2019s\nvoice came from among the pillows in the dusky corner of the couch:\n\u201cWell\u2014I hope to goodness he\u2019ll like us!\u201d\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t see how he could help it,\u201d said the Princess.\n\n\n\n\n EPILOGUE\n\n\n _Come back, Little Katharines, still for a time to our glamour-world,\n Ere our ship\u2019s prow touches the daylight shore,\n And her sails are furled.\n The sun has gone on his way o\u2019er the mountain\u2019s rim;\n The mighty Earth-shadow creeps slowly up from the East,\n And the heavens grow dim.\n See, in the soft gloaming the stars steal forth into sight,\n Till over the dun Earth-plain broods the deep blue vault\n Of the jeweled night.\n They are there, dear hearts; each one of our Star Folk blest\n Faithful and motionless stands, borne on by the firmament\u2019s\n Ceaseless roll to the West.\n They listen, they wait, expectant. For what? In the vast,\n Deep hush of the night their heart-beats throb in the stars.\n At last,\u2014\n In the Northern heavens a gleam of wavering light\n Floats upward\u2014dies. Then again\u2014pulsing up, ever stronger,\n More bright._\n\n _With the first, faint gleam, a shadow of sound\u2014a sigh\n As a breath over harp-strings\u2014sets trembling the stars\n As it passes through Earth and Sky.\n (Too fine for our bodily ears, little sisters, but clear\n To the blessed to whom all beauty is one. Only look;\n You shall hear!)\n Fuller toned now, and deeper, as broadening pennons of light\n Uprush from below the horizon; the heavens are alive\u2014\n Filled with splendor the night!_\n\n _What do the Star People see that is hid from our eyes,\n Where the ramparts of hills rise black in the North\n \u2019Gainst the flame of the skies?\n Ranks beyond ranks of radiant Spirits! They stand\n In dazzling circles;\u2014a golden censer swinging\n From each one\u2019s hand.\n From the Shining Ones\u2019 censers, soft swinging, there float and ascend\n Streams of pure radiance; and one with their rhythm, the deep\n Swelling harmonies blend.\n Like music heard faintly in dreams\u2014first afar\u2014it draws near,\n Till the triumphant chant sweeps into the Star People\u2019s hearts;\n Then, joyous and clear:\u2014\n \u201cThe Heavens declare the glory\u2014\u201d There follows a gush,\n A bursting in spray of the sound, as it pours like a wave\n In its o\u2019erwhelming rush!\n The splendor ineffable blinds them; their hearts fill with awe\n And reverence\u2014they know not for what; all the Power that they know\n Is their Law.\n Yet Law is obedient to this Nameless One,\n Whose glory all Creation sings; and shall be\n While the Ages run!\n \u201cMight, Power, Dominion\u2014\u201d Still the censers swing;\n The Heavens declare, in light upsurging still,\n The glory of the King._\n\n _May not the Star Folk, little sisters mine,\n Faint shadows though they be\u2014and still obedient\n To Law divine\u2014\n Declare His glory, Whom they may not know;\n And in the Northern Lights His worship see,\n As we below?_\n\n\n\n\n =The Riverside Press=\n\n CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS\n\n U . S . A\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\n TRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES\n\n\n 1. P. 230, added EPILOGUE heading.\n 2. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.\n 3. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as\n printed.\n 4. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.\n 5. Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=.","title":"Star People","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":48196}