The Children's Book of StarsMitton, G. E. (Geraldine Edith)
Science
The Children's Book of Stars
Mitton, G. E. (Geraldine Edith)
Astronomy -- Juvenile literature
I remember being told by a clergyman, years ago, that one night in
November he had gone up to bed very late, and as he pulled up his blind
to look at the sky, to his amazement he saw a perfect hail of shooting
stars, some appearing every minute, and all darting in vivid trails of
light, longer or shorter, though all seemed to come from one point. So
marvellous was the sight that he dashed across the village street,
unlocked the church door, and himself pulled the bell with all his
might. The people in that quiet country village had long been in bed,
but they huddled on their clothes and ran out of their pretty thatched
cottages, thinking there must be a great fire, and when they saw the
wonder in the sky they were amazed and cried out that the world must be
coming to an end. The clergyman knew better than that, and was able to
reassure them, and tell them he had only taken the most effectual means
of waking them so that they might not miss the display, for he was sure
as long as they lived they would never see such another sight. A star
shower of this kind is certainly well worth getting up to see, but
though uncommon it is not unique. There are many records of such showers
having occurred in times gone by, and when men put together and examined
the records they found that the showers came at regular intervals. For
instance, every year about the same time in November there is a star
shower, not comparable, it is true, with the brilliant one the clergyman
saw, but still noticeable, for more shooting stars are seen then than at
other times, and once in every thirty-three years there is a specially
fine one. It happened in fact to be one of these that the village people
were wakened up to see.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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