llings
to-day, isolated on the tops of almost inaccessible mesas.

Millions of years have passed since life appeared on the earth.
Gradually higher forms have followed lower ones in the sea and on the
land. But not all of the lower forms have gone. All grades of plants
and animals still flourish, but the dominant class in each age is more
highly organized than the class that ruled the preceding age.

To discover the earth's treasure, and to turn it to use; to tame wild
animals and wild plants, and make them serve him; to create ever more
beautiful and more useful forms in domestication; to find out the
earth's life story, by reading the pages of the great stone book--these
are undertakings that waited for man's coming.

* * * * *

PART II

THE SKY

* * * * *

EVERY FAMILY A "STAR CLUB"

The best family hobby we have ever had is the stars. We have a star club
with no dues to pay, no officers to boss us, and only three rules:

1. We shall have nothing but "fun" in this club--no hard work. Therefore
no mathematics for us!

2. We can't afford a telescope. Therefore we must be satisfied with what
bright eyes can see.

3. No second-hand wonders for us! We want to see the things ourselves,
instead of depending on books.

You can't imagine what pleasure we have had in one short year! The baby,
of course, was too young to learn anything, and besides he was in bed
long before the stars came out. But Ruth, our seven-year-old, knows ten
of the fifteen brightest stars; and she can pick out twelve of the most
beautiful groups or constellations. We grown-ups know all of the
brightest stars, and all forty-eight of the most famous constellations.
And the whole time we have given to it would not exceed ten minutes a
day!

And the best part is the _way_ we know the stars. The sky is no longer
bewildering to us. The stars are not cold, strange, mysterious. They are
friends. We know their faces just as easily as you know your playmates.
For instance, we know Sirius, because he is the brightest. We know
Castor and Pollux, because they are twins. We know Regulus, because he
is in the handle of the Sickle. And some we know by their colours. They
are just as different as President Taft, "Ty" Cobb, Horace Fletcher and
Maude Adams. And quite as interesting!

What's more, none of us can ever get lost again. No matter what strange
woods or city we go to,