“‘I hope you girls are satisfied _now_’ she said. ‘Persecuting that poor child!—and all for vanity. If anything has happened to her, I don’t know how you’ll forgive yourselves!’ “‘You were in it, too,’ observed Perseus; and she was. “‘I know it,’ she said, after a pause. ‘That’s how I know how they ought to feel.’ “‘I don’t see how anything _could_ have happened to her.’ said Orion. “‘Then where is she?’ asked Perseus. And that was what no one of them could answer; and Starland wasn’t a happy place.” “They could think she’d run away,” suggested the Kitten. “Or drowned in the river,” said Miss Phyllisy in a tragic voice. “They couldn’t bear to think it was anything serious; but it was a mystery where she could be. They wandered from place to place, asking one another what it could mean. And everywhere they ran across Little Bear, roaming uneasy and disconsolate: even old Major was restless. “‘You don’t suppose the Stranger came and carried her off to the Far-Away Isles, do you?’ asked Andromeda. “‘No, I do not,’ said Orion, very positively. “‘She wouldn’t have gone! She wouldn’t have left us,’ Taygeta declared. “‘Suppose he _took_ her?’ insisted Andromeda. “‘_Nonsense!_’ said Cassiopeia. “But when the night was gone without any sign of her, and a cloudless night followed and there were only six girls in the group where there should have been seven, what could they think? What could keep one of the Star People from her place, unless something really had happened to her? And when they had borne her absence for two cloudless nights, their hearts had grown heavier and heavier, and they had almost given up any hope of seeing their dear Merope again.” “And they couldn’t hunt for her when it was clear,” said Phyllisy. “No. They could only stand still and brood over it for two endless nights. “The third night came, cloudless still. The daylight grew dim until it was nearly gone, and one after another, each star glimmered in its place. When—— “Who was it?—coming—far down the Sky? “The Star People neither spoke nor stirred while Merope came swiftly and slipped into her place just as the last gleam of daylight faded away. And if that didn’t show how faithful and obedient they were, what could?” “They had to keep all their questions in them,” said Pat. “Yes, for a while. But about midnight thick clouds spread across the sky; and then Merope might have answered twenty questions at once, if she had had so many mouths. “‘Where have you been?’ and ‘Why did you go?’ “‘Has anything hurt you?’ “‘Didn’t you know we would worry?’ That was Cassiopeia. “‘If you’ll listen, I’ll tell you all about it,’ said Merope. ‘But you all talk at once.’ “‘We won’t,’ said Cassiopeia. ‘Be quiet, everybody! Tell us this minute. Who took you?’ “‘Nobody. I went myself.’ “‘That’s not the way to begin,’ said Orion. ‘Where did you go?’ “‘I went where the stars are made.’ “‘What did you do such a thing as that for?’