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Read Ebook: The Star People by Johnson Gaylord
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Ebook has 434 lines and 23591 words, and 9 pages
"Come on, youngsters," he invited, "and I'll let you settle the questions yourselves. We'll make a game of it," he added.
"Now," said Uncle Henry, squatting down before the leveled place, and pouring out the pebbles in a little pile, "how many stones do you need to make the dipper, Pete? We'll draw it on the sand, with pebbles for stars."
Three necks craned upward in unison, and the two boys' voices answered, almost together,
"Seven."
Betty gazed a moment longer, and said,
"Eight."
Uncle Henry looked interested.
"Where do you see the eighth, Betty?" he asked.
"Right close where the handle bends," announced Betty.
"Correct," said Uncle Henry, "that shows you have good eyes. The Arabs used to call that little star 'the proof,' because it is a test of good eyesight to see it. The star at the bend of the handle is also called 'the horse,' and that faint little star over it 'the rider.' You can make the dipper itself with seven pebbles, though. Go ahead and do it, Peter," Uncle Henry finished, "and take good-sized stones, to show that they're bright stars."
When Peter had finished, the smooth patch of sand looked like this in the light from Uncle Henry's pocket electric torch.
Betty insisted upon adding a tiny stone above "the horse," to represent her discovery, "the rider."
"Now," said Uncle Henry, looking upward, "I'll help you this much in finding all of 'the great bear.' The handle of the dipper is his tail. Everybody try to find the rest of him. Put down a pebble in the right spot for every star; big ones for bright ones, and little stones for faint ones."
"Ooh," interrupted Betty, "I got his nose!"
Here is where Betty put it.
"--and his shoulders!" she added in a moment, putting them in with small pebbles.
"I got his front leg!" announced Paul excitedly, adding three pebbles rapidly.
Then the bear looked like this.
It was Peter who contributed his hind legs and his "skeleton," made of finger-drawn lines in the sand. Like this.
And when Uncle Henry had drawn an outline in the sand with his finger, the "great bear" was done to everybody's satisfaction.
While they were all looking at it, Uncle Henry recited,
"Did you say, 'Noah'--or 'no one,' Uncle Henry?" asked Betty.
"I said, 'no one,' but have it 'Noah' if you like," said Uncle Henry. "Maybe Noah named him. He was interested in animals, and Adam ought not to have the only right to name them."
"Now let's find the little dipper!" urged Peter, anxious for a victory over Betty's doubts of its existence.
"When we find it," announced Uncle Henry solemnly, "it won't be a dipper at all; it will be another bear--a little bear. You know that Noah had two of everything in his ark."
"I told you there wasn't any little dipper!" shrilled Betty at Peter.
"Uncle Henry said we'd find it, though," countered Peter, looking hopefully at the oracle.
"So we will," laughed Uncle Henry, "the little dipper and the little bear are the same thing!"
"Come on!" urged Paul, "how do we start, Uncle Henry?"
Uncle Henry got up on his knees and drew a long straight line in the sand with his forefinger. It went up through both stars in the middle of the great bear's body, and a long way beyond. Over three times the distance between the two stars the line went beyond them. Uncle Henry put down a fair-sized pebble at the end.
"There," he said, "is the tip of the little bear's tail. Go ahead and find him; but I warn you--it's a very long tail, and you'll have to imagine his legs and nose."
There was a moment's silence. Then Peter said,
"Make it," said Uncle Henry.
When Peter finished putting down little pebbles the little dipper was very plain, just above the great bear's back.
Then Uncle Henry solemnly drew an outline around the seven small pebbles.
"Who stretched it?" inquired Paul breathlessly.
There was a moment's quiet. Then Peter said roguishly,
"You can't kid us into believing that, Uncle Hen--but we'll sure remember it."
All Uncle Henry said was,
"Your mother doesn't like you to talk slang, Peter."
Uncle Henry had scored again, and knew it.
"To-morrow night we'll find the dragon, and the man who drives the great bear around the pole, and his dogs, and maybe the lions and the swan," promised Uncle Henry, as he looked at his watch and stood up.
"Oooh, great!" cried the trio together.
"We'll have a reg'lar Noah's Ark on that sand, won't we?" said Betty.
"We'll call it 'Noah's Ark in the Sky,'" Uncle Henry agreed, as the children followed him up the walk to Seven Oaks Cottage.
SECOND EVENING
THE HERDSMAN'S DOGS CHASE URSA MAJOR--AND THE TERRIBLE DRAGON WRIGGLES AWAY IN FRIGHT
The next evening Peter, Paul, and Betty were all down on the beach as soon as supper was over.
Peter and Paul had that morning made a fence of laths around the sand drawings of the two bears--big, and little, so that "Rags," their Airedale puppy, could not spoil them.
Now that "Rags" was asleep under the cottage, Peter and Paul removed the fence and smoothed the sand carefully for several yards around the bears, while Betty collected a quite unnecessarily large number of pebbles to represent the stars that would be found, with Uncle Henry's help, when the twilight faded.
When all this was done the trio sat down beside the smoothed space and called to Uncle Henry, on the porch, that one star was already out and he had better hurry.
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