"As a reward for his bravery, he was placed after his death among the stars, and near the fair Andromeda. He still holds the head in his hand, and a star named Algol, or the Demon, as the Arabs call it, marks the evil eye. Sometimes it is bright, but in a few hours it will grow dim, as though winking at the people on earth. For this reason it is called a variable or changing star."
PERSEUS.
"What is that, sister?" asked Harry.
"A star that is brighter one time than another. Supposing someone kept turning the wick of the lamp up and down so that at one moment the room would be very bright and the next moment quite dim. You would call that a changing light. So it is with these stars, only in the case of Algol it is a planet that goes around it and at times cuts off part of its light. For two days and a half it is very bright, then during three or four hours it begins to get dim, and remains so for twenty minutes and then it gets bright again.
"Supposing you were trying to read by lamplight, and I should now and then hold a book between the lamp and you. Each time I did so the light on your book would grow dim. There is another variable or changing star named Mira, in the group of stars called Cetus, which is no other than the sea-monster which was sent to devour Andromeda. You can see it if you look out of the window facing south, and you will notice that it is at a safe distance from Andromeda, who is almost exactly overhead just now."
STORY OF THE FISHES.
"Not far from the sea-monster are the Fishes, and the story about them is as follows:
"One day when Venus and her little son Cupid were walking beside the banks of a river they were frightened at seeing a terrible giant named Typhon. Flames flashed from his eyes, and as he glared at Venus and Cupid they were overcome with fear and called on Jupiter to help them. He changed them into fishes, and afterward placed them among the stars.
"Between Cetus and Orion you can see some stars winding in and out, and they are part of the River Eridanus. A daring youth named Phaeton tried to drive the chariot of the sun through the sky one day. Jupiter struck him with a thunderbolt, and hurled him from heaven into the river below.