with Venus and over which you can just see her. Put a stake where you
stand. Next day go there half an hour before sunset, and stand a little
to the west. You will see Venus as big as life. The next afternoon you
can find her by four o'clock. And if you keep on you will see her day
before yesterday!"

That was a great "stunt." We did it; and there are dozens like it you
can do. And that reminds me that father was mistaken about our interest
lasting only two years. We know that it will not die till we do. For,
even if we never get a telescope, there will always be new things to
see. Our club has still to catch Algol, the "demon's eye," which goes
out and gleams forth every three days, because it is obscured by some
dark planet we can never see. And we have never yet seen Mira the
wonderful, which for some mysterious reason dies down to ninth magnitude
and then blazes up to second magnitude every eleventh month.

Ah, yes, the wonders and the beauties of astronomy ever deepen and
widen. Better make friends with the stars now. For when you are old
there are no friends like old friends.

THE DIPPERS AND THE POLE STAR

I never heard of any boy or girl who didn't know the Big Dipper. But
there is one very pleasant thing about the Dipper which children never
seem to know. With the aid of these seven magnificent stars you can find
all the other interesting stars and constellations. So true is this that
a book has been written called "The Stars through a Dipper."

To illustrate, do you know the _Pointers_? I mean the two stars on the
front side of the Dipper. They point almost directly toward the Pole
star, or North star, the correct name of which is Polaris. Most children
can see the Pole star at once because it is the only bright star in that
part of the heavens.

But if you can't be sure you see the right one, a funny thing happens.
Your friend will try to show you by pointing, but even if you look
straight along his arm you can't always be sure. And then, if he tries
to tell you how far one star is from another, he will try to show you by
holding his arms apart. But that fails also. And so, we all soon learn
the easiest and surest way to point out stars and measure distances.

The easiest way to tell any one how to find a star is to get three
stars in a straight line, or else at right angles.

The surest way to tell any one how far one star is from another is by
"degrees." You know what degrees are, because