One hot summer afternoon as I lay in the hammock trying to take a nap
after a hard forenoon's work and a hearty lunch, I heard the same old
nurse who had told me my first Chinese Mother Goose Rhymes, telling the
following story to the same little boy to whom she had repeated the
"Mouse and the Candlestick."
She told him that the Chinese call the Milky Way the Heavenly River,
and that the Spinning Girl referred to in the story is none other than
the beautiful big star in Lyra which we call Vega, while the Cow-herd
is Altair in Aquila.