How, now, does your star get on?
Look up there. He has got as far as that.
Where is the blue-coloured one?
O, that has gone down to the western edge.
What of my old friend Sirius, and his neighbour Orion?
They have been travelling the same road.
Well, you must stop star-gazing to-night.
But will you not explain the reason of this curious motion, my dear father, before I go down?
No, my lad, you must have another look at the stars to-morrow evening first.”
The little fellow retired slowly and thoughtfully to his berth; and dreamed of stars and ships in mingled confusion. How he longed for the sun to leave off his shining! He never watched that orb so as he did that day! He saw it rise, ascend, descend, and set. When the short twilight was over, the little twinkling bodies came out one by one, as a few western clouds changed from gorgeous red to colours of a darker hue. He first distinguished Sirius, and then the band of Orion. The blue star took some time to come forth; but when it did, there it was right overhead, as it had been early the last evening. The bright star was again on the tip of the distant waves. He stared again. He remembered how he had left them all the night before, and now the stars seemed in their old places again. His kind father came up to him.