people who named it thousands of years
ago, we probably shall never know. They left no books or drawings, so
far as I know. But in every dictionary and book on astronomy you can
find these bears and other animals drawn so carefully and beautifully
that it seems as if they _must_ be in the sky, and we must be too dull
to see them. It is not so. Look at the pictures in this book and, you
will see that the stars do not outline the animals. Many of them come at
the wrong places. And so it is with all the costly books and charts and
planispheres. It is all very interesting, but it isn't true. It's just
fancy. And when you once understand that it isn't true, you will begin
to enjoy the fancy. Many a smile you will have, and sometimes a good
laugh. For instance, the English children call the Dipper "Charles's
wain" or "the wagon." And the Romans called it "the plough." They
thought of those seven stars as oxen drawing a plough.

Well, that's enough about the two Bears. I want to tell you about the
other three constellations you can nearly always see. These are the
Chair, the Charioteer, and Perseus (pronounced _per'soos_).

The Chair is the easiest to find, because it is like a very bad W, and
it is always directly opposite the big Dipper, with the Pole star half
way between the two constellations. There are five stars in the W, and
to make the W into a Chair you must add a fainter star which helps to
make the square bottom of the chair. But what a crazy piece of
furniture! I have seen several ways of drawing it, but none of them
makes a comfortable chair. I should either fall over backward, or else
the back of the chair would prod me in the small of my back. The correct
name of this constellation is Cassiopeia's Chair.

I think this is enough to see and enjoy in one night. To-morrow night
let us look for the Charioteer.

I love the Charioteer for several reasons. One is that it makes a
beautiful pentagon, or five-sided figure, with its five brightest stars.
Another is that it contains the second-brightest star in the northern
part of the heavens, Capella. The only star in the north that is
brighter is Vega, but Vega is bluish white or creamy.

If you haven't already found the five-sided figure, I will tell you how
to find Capella. Suppose you had a gun that would shoot anything as far
as you wish. Shoot a white string right through the Pointers and hit the
Pole star. Then place your gun at the Pole star and turn it till i