/
54913-0.txt
3836 lines (2843 loc) · 165 KB
/
54913-0.txt
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
726
727
728
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
739
740
741
742
743
744
745
746
747
748
749
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
768
769
770
771
772
773
774
775
776
777
778
779
780
781
782
783
784
785
786
787
788
789
790
791
792
793
794
795
796
797
798
799
800
801
802
803
804
805
806
807
808
809
810
811
812
813
814
815
816
817
818
819
820
821
822
823
824
825
826
827
828
829
830
831
832
833
834
835
836
837
838
839
840
841
842
843
844
845
846
847
848
849
850
851
852
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955
956
957
958
959
960
961
962
963
964
965
966
967
968
969
970
971
972
973
974
975
976
977
978
979
980
981
982
983
984
985
986
987
988
989
990
991
992
993
994
995
996
997
998
999
1000
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stories of Starland, by Mary Proctor
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
Title: Stories of Starland
Author: Mary Proctor
Release Date: June 15, 2017 [EBook #54913]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STORIES OF STARLAND ***
Produced by Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
produced from images generously made available by The
Internet Archive)
Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
been preserved. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
[Illustration: RICHARD A. PROCTOR.]
STORIES OF STARLAND
BY
MARY PROCTOR
(Daughter of late Richard A. Proctor)
NEW YORK
POTTER & PUTNAM COMPANY
LONDON
G. W. BACON & CO., Limited
Copyright, 1898,
BY
POTTER & PUTNAM COMPANY.
THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS,
RAHWAY, N. J., U. S. A.
DEDICATED
TO THE MEMORY OF MY BROTHER
HARRY.
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his
handiwork.--Psalms.
PREFACE.
This book has been a labor of love from the beginning to the end, and
I have thoroughly enjoyed conversing with my little friends Harry and
Nellie. Now that the book is finished, I leave it with regret.
It is impossible to give all the authorities for my legends of the stars.
Many were told to me by my father when I was a little girl, or I found
them among books in his library, which is now scattered far and wide.
Others are from Grecian mythology, Japanese folk-lore, Hindoo legends,
while some of the American Indian stories were found in musty volumes
of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution.
As for the descriptive astronomy, among my authorities are Professor
C. A. Young, Professor Barnard, Agnes M. Clerke, Professor R. S. Ball,
Schiaparelli, Flammarion, Professor Todd, Mr. Lowell of Flagstaff, Ariz.,
and my father, the late Richard A. Proctor.
With the kind permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. I have been allowed
to use the following selections: "Why the Stars Twinkle," by Oliver
Wendell Holmes; "The Evening Star," by Longfellow; "Lady Moon," by
Lord Houghton; and "The New Moon," by Mrs. Follen. The editor of _St.
Nicholas_ has kindly given me permission to include the poems "The Four
Sunbeams," by M. K. B.; "Estelle's Astronomy," by Delia Hart Stone; and
"Seven Little Indian Stars," by Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt. I am indebted to
the editor of _Child-Study Monthly_ for the little poem "Is It True?" by
Morgan Growth. The poem on "The Solar System" is taken from the _Youth's
Companion_, with the kind permission of the editor. The verses about
"Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" are so familiar to every child that my book
of Stories of Starland would seem incomplete without this poem by Eugene
Field. The illustration of a Part of the Milky Way is from a photograph
taken by Professor Barnard at the Lick Observatory. Mr. Percival Lowell
has also very kindly allowed me to make use of his excellent illustration
of the Canals of Mars, taken from Todd's "New Astronomy," published by
the American Book Company.
I now submit this little book to my young readers, sincerely hoping its
pages may inspire them with a renewed interest in the wonders of Starland.
Mary Proctor.
New York City, June, 1898.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Light, F. W. Bourdillon, 13
THE STORY OF GIANT SUN.
Ancient Stories of the Sun--Heat of the Sun--Distance of the
Sun--Size of the Sun--The Sun in the Days of Its Youth, 13-33
On the Setting Sun, Sir Walter Scott, 29
The Four Sunbeams, M. K. B., from St. Nicholas, 31
The Sun, 32
THE FAMILY OF GIANT SUN.
What Is a Planet?--Story of Planet Mercury--Story of Planet
Venus, 34-45
Estelle's Astronomy, Delia Hart Stone, 47
Venus, Milton, 47
The Evening Star, Longfellow, 48
Mercury, Baker, 48
A RAMBLE ON THE MOON.
Story of the Moon--Story of the Man in the Moon--Story of the
Woman in the Moon--Story of the Toad in the Moon--Scenery on
the Moon--Hindoo Legend, 49-67
The New Moon, Mrs. Follen, 65
Lady Moon, Lord Houghton, 66
A Legend, Taken from the New York Tribune, 67
THE PLANET MARS AND THE BABY PLANETS.
Story of Planet Mars--Story of the Baby Planets, 68-79
STORY OF JUPITER AND HIS MOONS.
Story of Jupiter--Jupiter as Seen through a Telescope--The Moons
of Jupiter--Eclipse of Jupiter's Moons, 80-93
Jupiter, Moore, 92
A Lesson in Astronomy, Youth's Companion, 92
THE GIANT PLANETS.
The Planet Saturn--The Planet Uranus--Difference between a
Planet and a Star--Discovery of Planet Neptune, 94-103
Is It True? Morgan Growth, from Child-Study
Monthly, 102
COMETS AND METEORS.
Story of Comets--Story of Meteors--Story of a Shooting Star, 104-114
Starlight at Sea, Amelia B. Welby, 113
STORIES OF THE SUMMER STARS.
Legends of the Great Bear--Stories of the Great Dipper--Story
of the Dragon--Stories of the Northern Crown--Story of the
Lion--The Milky Way--A Swedish Legend--Legend of the Swan--
Meeting of the Star-Lovers, 116-146
The Stars and the Violets, 145
The Nights, Adelaide Proctor, 145
The Calling of the Stars, 146
STORY OF THE WINTER STARS.
Story of the Royal Family--Story of the Fishes--Story of the
Pleiades--Story of the Seven Little Indian Boys--Why the Stars
Twinkle--Flowers of Heaven--Number of the Stars--Distance of
the Stars--What Are the Stars Made of?--Our Island Universe, 147-179
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, Eugene Field, 177
Seven Little Indian Stars, Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt, from St.
Nicholas, 178
Why the Stars Twinkle, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 179
"GOD BLESS THE STAR!"
"God Bless the Star!" 181-186
Crossing the Bar, Tennyson, 185
Ye Golden Lamps of Heaven, Doddridge, 185
[Illustration: "HARRY."]
STORIES OF STARLAND.
LIGHT.
Night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of the whole life dies
When love is done.
--F. W. Bourdillon.
THE STORY OF GIANT SUN.
"Sister, come here and talk to me. I am so tired of being alone."
His sister Mary at once closed her book, and took a chair beside Harry's
couch. Poor little Harry was not like other boys. He could not play and
run about as they did, for he was a cripple. All the long weary days
he had to lie on a couch which was placed under the shady trees during
the warm summer season. He had learned to love the flowers and trees,
and the bright blue sky overhead, and his sister often told him pretty
stories about them. She was just thinking of telling him one now, when
he said gently:
ANCIENT STORIES OF THE SUN.
"Sister, you have told me so many stories of the flowers. I wish you
would tell me something about the sky. I have been looking at it for such
a long time, watching the little white clouds floating across it like
boats with silver sails; and then I tried to look at the bright yellow
sun, but it dazzles my eyes. Won't you tell me about it, and where it
goes in the evening when we cannot see it any more? Is it always ready
in the morning to give us light? Is it ever late, do you think? What
would we do if it forgot to come round the edge of the earth and give
us light?" he continued anxiously.
[Illustration: EARTH SUPPOSED TO BE FLAT.]
"There is no fear of that," said his sister Mary, laughing at the idea.
"But a long time ago people asked the very same question. In those days
they thought the earth was flat, and surrounded by an ocean without
end. The Hindoos supposed that the earth rested upon four elephants,
and the four elephants stood on the back of an immense tortoise, which
itself floated on the surface of an endless ocean. It was thought that
the sun plunged into the ocean when it disappeared in the evening, and
some people said they heard a hissing noise when the red-hot body went
under the waves.
"But if the sun dropped into the water each evening, how did it happen
that next morning it was seen again, as hot and bright as ever? The
people could not tell why, so they said that during the night the gods
made a new sun to be used the next day."
"That must have kept them busy," said Harry, laughing.
[Illustration: ANCIENT IDEA OF THE EARTH.]
"The good people made up another story about the sun, so that the same
one could be saved each night. Just as it was dropping into the ocean, a
god named Vulcan, who had a great boat ready, caught it, and all night
long he paddled with the blazing sun. Next morning he was ready at
sunrise to send the sun up into the sky in the east. He threw it with
so much force that it would go very high, and when it came down on the
other side in the west, he stood ready to catch it again."
"But where does the sun really go to at night?" asked Harry curiously.
"I should like to know."
HEAT OF THE SUN.
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATING DAY AND NIGHT.]
"We live on a big round globe called Earth," replied his sister, "and
we travel round the sun, which gives the earth light and heat. The sun
is like a great lamp in the sky, and when you face the lamp you see the
light, but if you turn away from it you are in darkness. As the earth
goes around the sun, it whirls around like a huge top; first one side
and then the other is turned to the sun and gets sunlight, and so we
have day and night. If the sun, or the lamp in the sky, went out and
stopped shining, all the light would go out on the earth, and we would
miss its heat as well.
"It is so hot that if it kept coming nearer and nearer until it was as
far from the earth as the pretty bright moon, the earth would get warmer
and warmer and melt like a ball of wax."
[Illustration]
"Just like Nellie's doll, then," said Harry, "when she left it on the
grass the other day. The sun was so hot that day that when Nellie picked
up her doll, she found that its wax face had melted and the eyes had
fallen in. So the sun did that," continued Harry, laughing heartily.
"Poor Nellie! I must tell her that the next time I see her."
"I can show you something else to prove how hot the sun is," said Mary,
as she picked up a leaf from the ground. "Just wait a moment while I go
into the house and get a magnifying-glass."
In a few minutes she returned, holding the glass in one hand and the
leaf in the other. She held it so that the sun shone directly upon the
glass and passed through it onto the leaf. In a few seconds the leaf
began to smoke, and then burn, until a little hole could be seen.
Harry was so surprised that he had to try it for himself, and he looked
forward with much delight to a visit from his cousin Nellie.
"Won't I have a lot to tell her?" he said to his sister: "all about the
sun's melting her dollie, and how to make the sun burn a hole through
a leaf. But the sun cannot be very far away, can it?" he asked.
DISTANCE OF THE SUN.
"Yes, it is very far away," replied Mary. "If a railroad could be made
from the earth to the sun, and a train started going at the rate of a
mile a minute, it would take days and weeks and years to get there.
"Let me see," said Mary, making a little note in her note-book. "There
are sixty minutes in an hour, and twenty-four hours in a day, and three
hundred and sixty-five days in a year. Why, Harry, do you know it would
take that train nearly one hundred and seventy-five years to get there?"
"It must be very far away, then," said Harry, "more than a hundred miles."
"It is more than a million miles," said Mary. "It is nearly ninety-three
millions of miles away. Now let us suppose you want to go to the sun.
You would call at the railroad office and ask for a ticket to Sunland.
The officer in charge would appear a little surprised, because that is
quite a long trip. Then he would look up the cost of the journey in his
book, and hand you a mileage book, saying: 'Sir, if you want to save
money on this trip, you had better take a mileage book with you, costing
two cents for every mile. Even then your fare will be nearly two million
dollars.'"
"Then I would say: 'Dear sir, I cannot go, as I know my sister could not
spare all that money. I think I would rather walk to the sun.' How long
would it take me to walk there, supposing I could walk?" asked Harry
thoughtfully.
"Dear, you would have to keep walking a very long time before you would
ever get there. Supposing you walked four miles an hour, and ten hours
a day, and kept this up for hundreds of years, you would be more than
six thousand years on the way. When you reached the sun you would be
footsore and weary, and as old as the hills."
Harry laughed heartily at the idea, and thought again of poor Nellie's
doll and the melting wax running like tears down its cheeks.
"But suppose," he asked, his eyes bright with excitement, "someone fired
a big cannon at the sun. Would the cannon-ball ever get there?"
Again Mary brought out her little note-book, and, with rather a look
of surprise, she said: "Supposing the cannon-ball went as fast as it
could go, it would take nine years to reach the sun, and the sound of
the explosion would reach there in fourteen years. The cannon-ball would
come along first, and five years afterward, if you were living on the
sun, you would hear the sound made when the cannon was fired off.
"It takes time for me to walk from the garden to the house, so it takes
time for sound to travel from the earth to the sky; and sound travels
only one-fifth of a mile in a second. Do you remember the thunderstorm
the other day, Harry, that frightened you so?"
"I shall never forget it," said Harry, trembling at the thought. "You
said, 'Count slowly'; and I counted one, two, three, four, five, up to
fifteen."
"Then I said: 'Don't be afraid, brother; the storm is three miles away.'"
"Yes, I remember," said Harry; "and I thought you were very clever, and
wondered how you knew."
"It was not so wonderful, after all, was it?" said Mary, laughing.
"Now tell me, sister," said Harry. "Supposing I had a very long arm,
and stretched it out toward the sun, and touched it with the tip of my
little finger. What would happen?"
"You would never know that you had burned it, for the pain of burning
would be one hundred and fifty years going along your little finger,
and down your giant arm nearly ninety-three millions of miles long,
before it at last reached your brain. Then it would let you know that
one hundred and fifty years before you had burned your little finger."
Harry stretched out his little arm in the direction of the sun, and,
looking at it critically, laughed at the idea of a giant arm millions
of miles long.
"It is too short by several inches," said his sister, reading his
thoughts, and joining in the laugh. "It would take hundreds and hundreds
of little arms as long as yours, would it not? Now what else do you want
to know about the sun?"
SIZE OF THE SUN.
"If you are not very tired, sister," said Harry coaxingly, "I should
like to know how large it is. Is it as large as the earth?"
[Illustration]
"Ever so much larger," replied Mary. "It is so large that if it were
cut up into a million parts, each part would be larger than the earth.
If we could weigh the sun in a pair of giant scales, it would take over
three hundred thousand globes as heavy as the earth to make the scales
even. If the sun were hollowed out, and the earth placed in the center,
there would be room for the moon as well. Now the moon is thousands of
miles from the earth, and yet the edge of the sun would be thousands of
miles from the moon, as you will see in the picture. If a tunnel could
be made through the center of the sun, and a train started going at the
rate of a mile a minute, it would take six hundred days for the train
to reach the other side of the tunnel. If this same train went around
the edge of the sun it would take five years. A train going around the
earth would take seventeen days to complete the journey."
"But suppose we went around the sun in a big steamer, like the one Uncle
Robert came over in; how long would that take?" asked Harry curiously.
"Only fifteen years," said his sister, laughing. "If you had started when
you were a little baby you would still have five more years to travel
before you would get back again to the starting-point."
"Then the sun must be very large," said Harry thoughtfully. "Let us call
it GIANT SUN. Has it always been as large as it is now?"
THE SUN IN THE DAYS OF ITS YOUTH.
"Ever so much larger," replied Mary.
[Illustration: THE SUN AND PLANETS FORMING OUT OF STAR-MIST.]
"Once upon a time it was a ball of glowing gas reaching as far as the path
of the last planet. The ball whirled around rapidly and the outer edge
cooled. A ring formed and separated from the ball and whirled around on
its own account, until it broke up into fragments. One of the fragments
drew all the others toward it, and another ball was formed, but quite a
small ball this time, called a planet. Just like the central ball, the
planet kept whirling around, threw off a ring, the ring broke up into
little pieces, and the pieces, coming together, made a little moon. The
planet is Neptune, and it still has only one moon. Meanwhile the ball in
the center kept whirling around, other rings formed other planets with
their attendant moons, completing the family of Giant Sun.
"The Sun is in the center and his planets circle around him. Next to him
is playful little Mercury, then beautiful Venus, then our own planet
Earth. Beyond it, we find ruddy Mars, the four hundred and fifty baby
planets, giant planet Jupiter, the ringed planet Saturn, and the last
two planets, Uranus and Neptune. All these planets are under the control
of the sun, and cannot get away from him."
"What is the sun made of?" asked Harry.
"Of iron and copper and silver, and many other things we can find on
earth; but the sun is so hot that they are melted together into a mass
like glue. This is the center of the sun. Outside is a shell of bright
clouds, from which rosy flames leap to a height of thousands of miles
above the surface of the sun. All around the edge of the sun, and reaching
millions of miles beyond it, is the pearly light of the corona like a
crown of glory. The pearly corona fades away into a soft beam of light."
"How beautiful the sun must be!" said Harry, as he listened attentively
to his sister. "But is it all alone in the sky, and does it not have
any little stars to play with?"
"It is not at all lonely," said Mary, laughing at the idea of the stars
as playthings for Giant Sun, "and is kept quite busy looking after its
large family of planets. I will tell you about them to-morrow, or nurse
will scold me for tiring you. And now, good-by, my dear. Don't forget
all I have told you about Giant Sun."
"Forget! how could I, sister? It is better than any fairy tale I have
ever heard. Giant Sun! Why you have told me enough to keep me thinking
all day and all night. Here comes Nellie. Hello! Nellie, come here and
let me tell you all about GIANT SUN, and how he melted your dollie for
you the other day."
"Melted my dollie!" said a pretty little golden-haired girl, as she
tripped like a little fairy up the garden-path. "So he melted my dollie,
did he? I should like to see him do it again!" Tears came into her eyes
at the thought of her sad experience. Since then, however, a china head
had replaced the melted wax, and Nellie's fickle little heart had been
comforted. So the tears soon vanished in a smile as she showed her new
treasure to Harry.
ON THE SETTING SUN.
Those evening clouds, that setting ray,
And beauteous tint, serve to display
Their great Creator's praise;
Then let the short-lived thing called man,
Whose life's comprised within a span,
To Him his homage raise.
We often praise the evening clouds,
And tints so gay and bold,
But seldom think upon our God,
Who tinged these clouds with gold.
--Sir Walter Scott.
[Illustration: GIANT SUN AND LITTLE EARTH.]
THE FOUR SUNBEAMS.
BY M. K. B.
Four little sunbeams came earthward one day,
Shining and dancing along on their way,
Resolved that their course should be blest.
"Let us try," they all whispered, "some kindness to do,
Not seek our own pleasuring all the day through,
Then meet in the eve at the west."
One sunbeam ran in at a low cottage door,
And played "hide-and-seek" with a child on the floor,
Till baby laughed loud in his glee,
And chased with delight his strange playmate so bright,
The little hands grasping in vain for the light
That ever before them would flee.
One crept to the couch where an invalid lay,
And brought him a dream of the sweet summer day,
Its bird-song and beauty and bloom;
Till pain was forgotten and weary unrest,
And in fancy he roamed through the scenes he loved best,
Far away from the dim, darkened room.
One stole to the heart of a flower that was sad,
And loved and caressed her until she was glad,
And lifted her white face again;
For love brings content to the lowliest lot,
And finds something sweet in the dreariest spot,
And lightens all labor and pain.
And one, where a little blind girl sat alone,
Not sharing the mirth of her playfellows, shone
On hands that were folded and pale,
And kissed the poor eyes that had never known sight,
That never would gaze on the beautiful light
Till angels had lifted the veil.
At last, when the shadows of evening were falling,
And the sun, their great father, his children was calling,
Four sunbeams sped into the west.
All said: "We have found that in seeking the pleasure
Of others, we fill to the full our own measure,"
Then softly they sank to their rest.
--St. Nicholas, December, 1879.
THE SUN.
Somewhere it is always light;
For when 'tis morning here,
In some far distant land 'tis night,
And the bright moon shines there.
When you've retired and gone to sleep,
They are just rising there;
And morning o'er the hill doth creep
When it is evening here.
And other distant lands there be
Where it is always night;
For weeks the sun they never see,
The stars alone give light.
But though 'tis dark both night or day
It is as wondrous quite
That when the night has passed away,
The sun for weeks gives light.
Yes, while you sleep the sun shines bright,
The sky is blue and clear;
For weeks and weeks there is no night
But always daylight there.
THE FAMILY OF GIANT SUN.
The next morning, when Mary came out in the garden to sit with Harry,
she was surprised to see an audience of three instead of one: Harry,
whose face beamed with delight when he saw her; Nellie, who was seated
in a tiny rocking chair beside him, and Nellie's doll.
"You see, dollie wants to know all about Giant Sun, too," Nellie gravely
informed Mary. "I never could remember all, and she might remember what I
forget. Besides, she must learn some day. That is what mamma said about
me. I heard her," Nellie continued wisely, as she looked up at Mary.
"Do you mind telling me about the sky-people too?"
"Mind? Why you little bit of a doll baby," laughed Mary, as she picked
her up, doll and all, and hugged her, "if you and dollie promise not
to go to sleep, you can stay here as long as you want to. But does Aunt
Agnes know you are here, Nellie; or have you run away from home?"
[Illustration: GIANT SUN AND HIS FAMILY.]
"No, I have not run away," said Nellie earnestly, "but my dollie has.
Nurse brought me over here, but she did not know my dollie was here. I
forgot all about her yesterday, while Harry was telling me about Giant
Sun, and I left her out on the grass. But she didn't melt a bit. I knew
you wouldn't, dear little dollie, would you? Now, dollie, sit up straight,
and listen to Cousin Mary talk. My, how she can talk, too! Can't you?"
"I'll try," said Mary, laughing. "So you want to hear about Giant Sun
and his family. He has such a large family, and he has to give them all
plenty of light and heat. If he put out his big lamp in the sky, it would
be always dark here, and we would shiver with cold and die. When I come
to your room at night, Harry, to say good-night, I always carry a lamp
in my hand so that I can see you; but supposing a puff of wind blew it
out, then I could not see you at all.
"Now this light is not only for us, but for the rest of the sun's family
as well. First, there is little Mercury, who was named after the god
of thieves; and he deserves this name, because he steals more light and
heat from the sun than any of the other planets."
WHAT IS A PLANET?
"What is a planet?" asked Harry.
"A planet is just like this earth we are living on, and only shines with
the light it borrows from the sun. If we lived on planet Mercury, and
could look at our earth, we would see it shining like a bright star in
the sky; but all the light comes from the sun."
"Do we live on a star, then?" asked Nellie, her little eyes wide open
with amazement.
"No; we live on a planet. We could not live on a star, as a star is
blazing hot. That is the difference between a star and a planet. A star
is hot and bright and shining and gives light to the planets, if it has
any. Planets are little globes like the earth that circle around the sun."
"Then the sun must be a star," said Harry, "as you told me yesterday
that it is very hot."
"That is right," said Mary; "and every star in the sky is a sun."
"And has lots of weensy-teensy planets going all around it?" asked Nellie
excitedly.
STORY OF PLANET MERCURY.
"Some of them have, I am sure," said Mary. "But now we are running along
too fast, and I must tell you about our own sun first, and its nearest
planet Mercury. Well, Mercury is a very warm little world, and it gets
so near the sun that sometimes it is about nine times as warm as here,
and at other times it is only four times as warm. You see, Mercury does
not go round the sun in a perfect circle, so at times it is farther away
than at others. Now, the sun is like a great fire in the sky, and the
nearer we go to it the warmer we are. How would you like to live on a
little world where it is nine times warmer than it is here?"
"I should not like it at all, would you, dollie?" said Nellie; "we would
roast if we went to world Mercury."
"But we don't know whether there are any people there," continued Mary,
"and if there are, they might not mind the heat at all. You can get used
to the heat, just as Uncle Robert did when he went to India. Don't you
remember how he felt the change when he came home, and how he shivered?
He missed the heat just as we would suffer from it if we went to India
for the first time."
[Illustration: COMPARATIVE SIZE OF SUN AS SEEN FROM THE PLANETS.]
"Then Uncle Robert would not mind going to Mercury," said Harry, laughing,
"if he is getting to like the heat in India. But I do not want him to
go yet, as he might never come back again; and what would we do without
him?"
"What would we?" said Nellie mournfully, her eyes filling with tears at
the very thought.
"Is a planet made of earth and stones and trees and flowers, just like
planet Earth?" asked Harry.
[Illustration: COMPARATIVE SIZE OF THE PLANETS.]
"Yes, dear," replied his sister; "only some planets, like Jupiter and
Saturn, are still wrapped up in a blanket of clouds and steam, and we
cannot see them yet. They are very hot indeed, and all the water that
will make the oceans and seas and bays is now steam and clouds hiding
the true planet from view. Water could no more rest on the surface of
the planets Jupiter and Saturn than it could rest on red-hot iron. Don't
you remember, the other day, when nurse upset a cup of water on the hot
stove, how the water sizzled and turned into steam in a moment?
"Now planet earth, a long time ago, when it was a very young world, was
very hot like Jupiter. All the lakes and seas and oceans were turned into
steam and blankets of cloud. It would have been a very uncomfortable world
to live on then. But it became cooler and cooler, and the clouds changed
into the oceans and seas and lakes that make our earth so beautiful.
"Some day this little world will grow old, and the oceans will get
smaller and smaller, and the earth colder and colder. Then there will be
scarcely any air to breathe, and we would gasp, and die just like that
poor fish that Uncle Robert caught last week and threw in the bottom of
the boat. Don't you remember, Nellie, how the poor little thing gasped
and jumped around? It could not live out of the water, so it died. Now,
we cannot live without air, and if this earth had not any air we would
die. But this will not happen for a very long time."
"Are you quite sure?" asked Harry, with an anxious look on his face;
"because I don't want to die yet, sister."
"Quite sure, my little brother," she said, kissing him tenderly; "for
hundreds and hundreds of years must pass away before anyone will have
any idea that the earth is growing old."
"And what will become of the poor little fishes when the oceans dry up?"
asked Nellie sadly, as she clasped her dollie closely in her arms, as
though to protect it from the coming trouble.
"I expect they will all die," said Harry wisely; "because you know,
Nellie, they can't live out of water. Can they?"
"Or else that fish Uncle Robert caught would have lived," said Nellie.
"But please tell us a story about Mercury, Cousin Mary, and the other
little planets."
"Well, Mercury is a very little planet, and instead of taking a year of
three hundred and sixty-five days, it goes around the sun in eighty-eight
days. That is, it goes round the sun four times while we go round it
only once. Some think Mercury always keeps the same side turned to the
sun, so that it is always day on one side and night on the other, but
we are not quite sure about this yet."
"I should like to live on Mercury, wouldn't you, Harry?" said Nellie,
clapping her hands with glee. "Just think of day all the time, and never
having to go to sleep!"
"But you would get very tired of that," said Mary, "and long for the
night to come. And, besides, would you not miss seeing the moon and the
beautiful stars?"
"I would live on the edge of Mercury," said Harry thoughtfully, "so that
when I was tired of day I might slip around it and have night. It must
be very cold on the other side, where the sun does not shine, if Mercury
gets all its heat from the sun."
"I suspect it is," said Mary, "and I don't believe we should like to live
on Mercury, after all; so let us try the next planet, which is called
Venus."
STORY OF PLANET VENUS.
"What a pretty name," said Nellie; "and is Venus very warm, like Mercury?"
"It is not so near to the sun," replied Mary, "but it is about twice as
warm and bright as our planet. Venus is nearly as large as the earth,
and sometimes she is called her twin sister.
"Like Mercury, she may probably always turn the same face to the sun,
and get baked on one side and frozen on the other. She looks like a
beautiful silver globe in the sky. Sometimes we see her early in the
morning as a morning star, or just about twilight as an evening star.
Like Mercury and the earth, she borrows all her light from the sun. We
only see her because the sun is shining on her. Next to Venus is our
own planet, earth, and around it circles the moon, but I must tell you
about that another time."
[Illustration: EARTH IN SPACE.]
ESTELLE'S ASTRONOMY.
BY DELIA HART STONE.
Our little Estelle
Was perplexed when she found
That this wonderful world
That we live on is round.
How 'tis held in its place
In its orbit so true
Was a puzzle to her,
With no answer in view.
"It must be," said Estelle,
"Like a ball in the air
That is hung by a string;
But the string isn't there!"
--St. Nicholas, March, 1896.
VENUS.
Fairest of stars, last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn,
Sure pledge of day, that crown'st the smiling morn
With thy bright circlet.
--Milton.
THE EVENING STAR.
Lo! in the painted oriel of the West,
Whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines,
Like a fair lady at her casement, shines
The evening star, the star of love and rest!
And then anon she doth herself divest
Of all her radiant garments, and reclines
Behind the somber screen of yonder pines,
With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed.
O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus!
My morning and my evening star of love!
My best and gentlest lady! even thus,
As that fair planet in the sky above,
Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night,
And from thy darkened window fades the light.
--Longfellow.
MERCURY.
First, Mercury, amid full tides of light,
Rolls next the sun, through his small circle bright;
Our earth would blaze beneath so fierce a ray,
And all its marble mountains melt away.
Fair Venus next fulfills her larger round,
With softer beams and milder glory crowned;
Friend to mankind, she glitters from afar,
Now the bright evening, now the morning star.
--Baker.
A RAMBLE ON THE MOON.
The moon was shining brightly and flooding Harry's room with its rays.
He was suffering so very much, and had tried in vain to sleep. Presently
he asked his nurse if she would not let Mary come and talk to him. "It
will not tire me," he begged earnestly; "and it does tire me to lie here
hour after hour with no one to talk to."
His nurse understood him so well, and her heart ached for the lonely
child who had so little to amuse him in life. She never refused a request
if it were at all possible to grant it. So she called his sister Mary,
who hastened at once to his room, and brother and sister were soon far
away on a ramble in starland.
"We shall go to the moon this evening," she began, "and find out what
a queer old world it is."
"Old?" asked Harry; "why do you call it old, when it looks so bright
and new? See, sister, how it seems to be looking right into the window
and watching us. I wonder if it knows what we are saying about it. Now
what would it think if it heard you calling it old?"
[Illustration: THE MOON.]
"But it is," said Mary, laughing; "and very old indeed. Its face is
wrinkled and scarred, and is just like that of the old dried-up apple
we found in the orchard the other day."
"What makes it so bright, then, if it is so old?" asked Harry, as he
looked curiously at the moon.
"It borrows its light from the sun," replied his sister; "if the sun
were to stop shining you would not be able to see the moon at all. It
would be as dark as night and twice as gloomy."
"Do you think there are people on the moon?" asked Harry excitedly.
"No, dear, not even the 'Man in the Moon,' though I am going to tell
you some stories about him presently. Besides, no one could live on the
moon, as there is not any air to breathe, and you cannot live without
air. There is not any water to drink; in fact, there is not a drop of
water on the moon."
"Then it must be very old," said Harry thoughtfully, "because you know
you told me, sister, some time ago, that if a planet grows very old all
the oceans and bays disappear."
"Yes, the moon is very old; it is a dead world. If you could go there,
you would find it a very gloomy spot. There are no trees or flowers;
and there is not even a blade of grass. The sky is always black and the
stars shine night and day. The shadows are so black on the moon that
it would be a fine place to play hide-and-seek. The moment you stepped
into a shadow you would become invisible."
[Illustration: SCENERY ON THE MOON.]
"Just like the prince in the fairy tale who put on a little cap and no
one could see him," said Harry.
"Yes; that prince would not need the cap on the moon. If he did not want
anyone to know he was there, all he would have to do would be to keep
in the shadow. No one would hear his footsteps, as not a sound can be
heard on the moon. It would be useless to speak, as there is no air to
carry the sound of a voice."
"I should not like to go to the moon, then," said Harry seriously,
"because you could not tell me any stories, sister, could you? What
would I do then?"
"I really cannot imagine," said Mary, laughing; "but perhaps you might
come across the Man in the Moon and talk to him in sign-language."
"Like the deaf-and-dumb people?" asked Harry.
"If he could understand it," said Mary; "but then, we know there is
really not any Man in the Moon."
"But there is a story about him," said Harry coaxingly, "and I do wish
you would tell it to me, just now while the moon is looking at us from
the sky."
THE MAN IN THE MOON.
"Well, once upon a time," began Mary, in true fairy-story fashion,
"there was a man who went out into the woods and picked up sticks on a
Sunday. That was very wicked of him, you know, because Sunday is a day
of rest, and picking up sticks is work. He tied the sticks together into
a bundle, and, putting them on his shoulder, started to walk home with
them. On the way he met a handsome stranger, who said to him: