THE SEVEN STARS.
Seven little boys asked their mothers to permit them [[134]]to make a feast; but they were denied. Still intent upon their purpose, they went alone and procured a little white dog to sacrifice, and while dancing around the fire, they were suddenly carried away through the air by some invisible spirit. Their mothers gazed after them with inconsolable anguish, till they saw them take their place in the sky among the starry hosts, where they are dancing still as the seven stars of the Pleiades.
The ancient mythology relates that these stars are the children of Atlas and Pleione, who were thus changed and permitted to shine for ever, because of their amiable virtues and mutual affection.