arth and sky meet. Not long ago the
Dipper handle was away up there," he continued, pointing up very high.

"Does the Dipper move?" said Rollo.

"Yes, it goes round and round the North Star, all the time. All the
stars that are near the North Star keep going round and round it, once
every day."

"And the rest of the stars," said Rollo, "do they go round too?"

"Yes," said Jonas; "only they are so far from the North Star, that they
go in larger circles, and so go down below the horizon, and are out of
sight sometimes. They come up in the east, like the sun, and go over and
down in the west. But they don't go over straight," he added. "They
don't come right up straight; and so go directly over. They slant away,
off to the south, so as to keep always just so far from the North Star."

"That's curious," said Rollo.

"I think it is," said Jonas. "And they all go together; they don't move
about among themselves, at all."

"Don't they?" said Rollo.

"No," said Jonas; "only there are a few wandering stars, that keep
wandering about among the others. But the rest all keep exactly in
their places, and all go round together; so they are called _fixed_
stars."

"Show me one of the wandering stars," said Rollo.

"I don't know which they are," said Jonas, "only they are pretty bright
ones."

"I guess that's one," said Rollo, pointing to a pretty bright star in
the east.

"Perhaps it is," said Jonas.

"I wish I knew," said Rollo.

"I'll tell you how you can find out," said Jonas.

"How?" asked Rollo.

"Why, when you go into the house, take a piece of paper, and go to the
window, and make some dots upon it, for all the stars around that one.
Make the dots just in the places that the stars seem to be in. Then let
them all go. They will rise more and more, and go overhead, and down in
the west, and to-morrow night they will come up in the east again; and
then you can look at them again, and see if the bright star has changed
its place at all."

Rollo said that he meant to do that; and then he said that he began to
feel cold, and wanted to go in. But Jonas told him that he ought to
wait and help finish the dial.

So they went to the place which Jonas had selected, and Jonas, looking
up first at the North Star, made a hole in the ground, with an iron bar,
in an oblique direction, so that the bar should point pretty nearly to
the North Star. Then he drove in one of his stakes in the same way. He
then made a hole, pe