After Uncle Henry had shown the boys how the big, red star, called Antares, in the heart of the scorpion, has a reddish color, Peter suggested that it was probably red because the Archer had already shot an arrow through the scorpion’s heart, and made it bleed.
After that, since neither the boys nor Uncle Henry ever wanted Betty left out of anything, and since they knew she would have stayed if Peter and she hadn’t wanted different things at the same time, the Society of Star-Gazers adjourned until the next evening.
On the porch, however, Uncle Henry made up this poem and repeated it to Peter and Paul before they went in to bed.
“The Scorpion’s heart has bled,
Antares-star is red,
The Archer made an arrow-wound,
But Scorpio isn’t dead.
The Archer draws his strong-bow,
To shoot a sharp new arrow,
I hope he hits the Scorpion,
And kills the poisonous fellow.”
FOURTH EVENING
THE VIRGIN IS TOO BUSY FEEDING HER SKY POULTRY, SO CASSIOPEIA GETS THE UKELELE TO PLAY
Betty, in spite of her pretended lack of curiosity about the scorpion, was down on the beach the next evening ahead of the other members of the Society of Star-Gazers. Uncle Henry found her in the twilight, sitting cross-legged before the sand-drawing of Scorpio.