The ancients. But it is time now to sleep away all thought of the stars in the care of Him who cares for the stars.” * * * * * During the night our young friend had a disturbed rest. The constellations kept circling round him; while lions, bulls, fish and crabs were mingled, in strange confusion. They glared at him with their hollow eyes till the boy was quite frightened, and cried out in his sleep. The morning sun awoke the boy, and put to flight the stars. When sweet evening came the twinkling lights stole forth again, and the astronomical dialogue was renewed by James. “Please, father, I want to know the various constellations. We will class them, my son, into North Polar, South Polar, and Equatorial. The North Polar star, at the end of the Little Bear’s tail, is a capital guide for the north pole; but I don’t see any Little Bear southward, walking round his tail-tip, like a horse tethered in a paddock, so that I may discover the south pole. No, we have not a South Polar star, and no bright stars at all near the south pole of the heavens. Let us have a little more about the Zodiac first, father. I know the twelve signs are constellations over the tropics; but I don’t know why you call them the Zodiac. Zodiac is from a Greek word, meaning a small figure of an animal, as they are nearly all animal figures. How many northern and southern constellations are there? In the ancient celestial atlases we find twenty-one northern and fifteen southern, besides the Zodiac; then more were added of new ones named or old ones subdivided, till we have, including the Zodiac, sixty-two northern and fifty-five southern constellations. Of course, the old astronomers of Egypt and Babylon could not have seen all the south polar stars? We should hardly fancy it. Strange tricks have been played with the names of the constellations. Only think of English writers, sixty years ago, wanting to have your Orion called Nelson; and the University of Leipsic, to please the French emperor, proposed to steal the belt and sword from Orion, and call them the constellation of Napoleon. I am glad they didn’t, though. But how is the line drawn to distinguish the spaces of the constellations? Their sizes vary. Orion, for instance, takes up a great space in the heavens, while others occupy little room. How many stars go to make up a constellation? You mean those seen by the naked eye. These differ in number. I will run over some of the Zodiac. Aries has 66, Taurus 141, Gemini 83, Cancer 85, Leo 95, Virgo 110, Libra 51, Scorpio 44, Sagittarius 69, Capricornus 51, Aquarius 108, Pisces 113. But there must be a lot more seen in them by the telescope. Yes. The six stars of the Pleiades turn out to be 188. In Orion there are 2000 stars easily distinguished. Your three in the belt are 80, and the star in the sword you find to be a dozen.