He looked longingly at the cupboard, but wood and glass are unresponsive until acted on by human agency; so, possessing no “Open, Sesame” for that unyielding lock, Outa contented himself by smacking his lips as he toddled away.
VII.
The Stars and the Stars’ Road.
Darkly-blue and illimitable, the arc of the sky hung over the great Karroo like a canopy of softest velvet, making a deep, mysterious background for the myriad stars, which twinkled brightly at a frosty world.
The three little boys, gathered at the window, pointed out to each other the constellations with which Cousin Minnie had made them familiar, and were deep in a discussion as to the nature and number of the stars composing the Milky Way when Outa shuffled in.
“Outa, do you think there are a billion stars up there in the Milky Way?” asked Willem.
“A billion, you know,” explained Pietie, “is a thousand million, and it would take months to count even one million.”
“The Stars’ Road”