“I should think you were sleepy, James.
No, father: the stars kept my eyes open.
How, now, does your star get on?
Look up there. He has got as far as that.
Where is the blue-coloured one?
O, that has gone down to the western edge.
What of my old friend Sirius, and his neighbour Orion?
They have been travelling the same road.
Well, you must stop star-gazing to-night.
But will you not explain the reason of this curious motion, my dear
father, before I go down?
No, my lad, you must have another look at the stars to-morrow evening
first.”
The little fellow retired slowly and thoughtfully to his berth; and
dreamed of stars and ships in mingled confusion. How he longed for the
sun to leave off his shining! He never watched that orb so as he did
that day! He saw it rise, ascend, descend, and set. When the short
twilight was over, the little twinkling bodies came out one by one, as
a few western clouds changed from gorgeous red to colours of a darker
hue. He first distinguished Sirius, and then the band of Orion. The
blue star took some time to come forth; but when it did, there it was
right overhead, as it had been early the last evening. The bright
star was again on the tip of the distant waves. He stared again. He
remembered how he had left them all the night before, and now the stars
seemed in their old places again. His kind father came up to him.
“O, father,” cried the boy, “all my stars have gone back into their
places again this evening.
Did you see them travel back as you saw them travel forward?
No. But there they are, though I do not know how they got there.
I think I saw you looking pretty often at the sun, to-day. Did you
notice anything peculiar about his movements?
Yes. I noticed that he seemed to go the same road as my stars did the
evening before.
But you saw him ascend in the east, rise nearly overhead, and then set
in the west. You did not observe your stars do that.
No, father; but I have it. It took a long while for the sun to go all
that distance; and I fancy that if I had watched my bright star as
long, I should have seen that set in the west also.
Certainly you would.
Well, but how did they get back into their places again?
How will the sun manage to get on the east side, to-morrow morning?
Ah! I see. What will explain the movement of the stars will explain the
movement of the sun.