Young Folks

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 28, 7 October 1893, Page 10

Young Folks

BESS AND THE STARS. “Twinkle, twinkle,little star, Plow I wonder what you are!” sang little Bess merrily one beautiful evening in spring as she stood upon the wide verandah and gazed up at the deep blue sky, over -which was cast a soft halo of light from the full orbedmoon and the. countless myriads of twinkling stars apparently surrounding it. Ho!” sang out the well-known voice of Uncle Bob, as that worthy emerged from a low window. “So m J little girl has begun to wonder about the starry nysteries of the heavens so soon, or was the thought caused by the remembrance of the old nursery rhyme ?” “ Well, yes, it -was, partly, at least,” laughed Bess. “ But really, aren’t the stars glorious to-night ? Why, it looks as though w - e could almost touch the shining things if we could only fly to the top of the hill yonder.” “ Yes, they do seem to he not very far a-way to-night,” answered Uncle Bob. “ That must be because they are so unusually brilliant; but the astronomers tell us that even the ones nearest our earth are more than five hundred thousand times as far from us as the sun is, and that is ninetytwo millions of miles. Which would you think the larger of the two, Bess, the moon or the stars P” “Why, the moon, of course.” “No, the moon is very much smaller than the smallest star; it seems larger because it is so much nearer us.” “ But why do some of the stars shine so quietly, and others dance and twinkle P Sec,” cried Bess, “ there is one falling now.” “ Those which shine wdth so clear and steady a light, or, as you say, ‘ quietly,’ are not stars, but planets, and belong - to the solar system ; that is, the sj’stem of planets or worlds that revolve around the sun. The stars are all outside of this system. In ancient times the astronomers thought the stars did not move, and so they were called ‘fixed stars.’ This name was given them to distinguish them from the planets, which are all the time visibly changing their places.” ‘ Oh, how I wish I were grown up so I could go away to school and study astronomy as sister Alice does. There is so much to know,” sighed little Bess. “ Never mind, my chicken, you will grow up in good time ; all you have to do now is, to quietly perform each little daily duty that is given yon, and to faithfully learn the school lessons, so that the foundation of your education may be laid strong and deep ; then when womanhood does come it will find you ready for the broader opportunii ies of learning and culture that will surely follow.— Selected.