“What’ll be left for me to do?” inquired Paul wistfully, “if you let Pete do the horse?”
“That’ll be all right, Paul,” reassured Uncle Henry, “the sky horse is very large, but we’ll give you two smaller animals to do yourself to make up for him—Aries, the ram, and Canis Minor, the smaller dog.”
“Fine,” agreed Paul. “I know all ’bout rams.”
The children laughed gleefully. Paul had been butted over once by a ram when they were on a summer visit to their grandfather’s farm.
“Well, Pete,” said Uncle Henry briskly, “you’ll find Pegasus, the horse, grazing clear on the other side of the star field. Somebody built a box stall for him over there, but he’s so big and strong that he doesn’t stay in it except when he feels like it. He’s all the time leaping the fence and escaping. When you find him, you’ll see that he’s doing that very thing now. In fact, you’ll catch him right in the act!”
“Oh, let’s hurry then!” said Peter, “he might be out before we see him do it!”
“Everybody find the big dipper,” directed Uncle Henry. “You remember how we found the pole star in the tip of the little bear’s tail by drawing a line up through the ‘pointer stars’ of the dipper’s bowl, on the side away from the handle? Well, do that again now, and follow the line through the pole star, passing behind Cassiopeia in her chair, and continuing until your line passes through two fairly bright stars quite a distance apart. ([23]) A line connecting these stars marks the top edge of Pegasus’ box stall, which is called ‘the square of Pegasus.’”
“Cassiopeia is about halfway between the pole star and Pegasus. A line drawn from the pole star through the back of Cassiopeia’s chair will reach the two stars that form the lower corners of Pegasus’ box stall.” ([24])
“Oh, I see the square now,” said Peter.
“Me, too,” said Paul.