There is little danger of quarrelling at that distance apart, father.
Astronomers talk of stars running against one another. There are also triple stars.
Three stars polkaing in and around each other! That is odd. Where are there any?
In the Lyre and Scorpion. In the latter the colours are white, grey, and yellow. In the Swan the largest star is very yellow, and its two mates are blue. But more wonderful still, in Orion there are four stars thus rolling round each other.”
PERIODICAL AND VARIABLE STARS.
It was upon a lovely evening, when off the coast of South America, ready to slip across by the side-help of the South-east Trades to the Cape of Good Hope, that Mr. Marple found his son at his old post.
“Now then,” said he, “my star-gazing boy, are you quite sure that none of them have run away since last night?
I am not sure of that, father; for ever since you proved that the Fixed stars were not fixed, I think I might some day find a bright friend gone on a visit to another universe somewhere; perhaps, getting into such agreeable society as to have no wish to come back again to our visible universe; or, maybe, to pop back again in his place.
It so happens, James, that what you have imagined, really takes place. Some stars do really disappear, to return, or not; and others, wholly strangers to us, come within observation.