"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.