"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.]