“O Father,” said Rollo, looking up; “look at the sky; see how full of stars it is.”

The sky was indeed very full of stars. The galaxy, or the milky way, as it is sometimes called, was very bright. Rollo looked at the stars a moment, and then he got into the sleigh. His father advised him to take a seat with him, behind; but Rollo said he wanted to sit with Jonas, and see the pond, when they came to it.

“I am afraid you will be cold,” said his father.

“No, sir,” said Rollo; “I don’t think it is cold.”

So Rollo took his place, by the side of Jonas, on the front seat, and they rode along. After going at a brisk pace for a few miles, they came to the top of a hill, where the pond first appeared in sight. It looked like a great level field covered with snow. They could see a dark line winding along in a gently-serpentine direction across the surface of it. Jonas said that this was the road they were to take in crossing the pond.

The horse went rapidly down the hill, and before long they were upon the pond. There was not much wind, but a light breeze blew keenly towards Rollo’s face, and made his nose and cheeks cold. So he said he meant to turn round towards his father.

His father proposed to him to come and sit upon the back seat; but he said he should be warm upon the front seat, if he only turned round. So he put his feet over the seat, and enveloped them in the buffalo skins which were down in front of the back seat, and the buffalo skin which had been before him, he threw over his shoulders, so that now he had a very good place indeed. He could see, all around him, the shores of the pond, with the lights in the farm houses on the land, and all the constellations which were spread out before him in that quarter of the heavens at which he was looking.

“O father,” said Rollo, “I see three stars all in a row. I wish I knew the names of them. Could you look round and see, father?”

“Why, not very well,” said his father. “I cannot look round, I am so muffled up.”

Rollo, being seated on the front seat, with his back to the horse, of course was looking at that part of the sky which was behind the sleigh, so that his father could not see the constellation in that quarter of the heavens.

“Let me see,” said his father; “we must be going nearly west, so that that part of the sky is the eastern part. Orion must be rising about this time. Perhaps the stars which you see are the stars in the belt of Orion.”

“In the belt of Orion?” repeated Rollo.

“Yes,” said his father. “The most beautiful constellation in the sky is Orion; and early in the winter it rises in the evening. Orion was a hunter, and he has a belt: and in his belt are three beautiful stars, all in a row.”

“Well, father,” said Rollo, “tell me some other stars that ought to be near, if it is really the belt of Orion that I see, and then I will tell you if they are there.”

“Very well,” said his father. “If they are the three stars in the belt of Orion, they lie in a line one above the other, not one by the side of the other. I mean by that, that, if there was a line drawn through them, and continued each way, it would be a line running up and down in the sky, not a line extending from one side to the other.”

“Yes, sir,” said Rollo; “this row of stars is in a line up and down.”

“And off on each side of the little row of stars are two other bright stars, on each side.”

“How far off, sir?” said Rollo.

“About twice as far, I should think, as the little row of stars.”

“Yes, sir,” said Rollo; “I see one of them. Yes, I see them both. One is on one side, and the other is on the other side.”

“Yes: then I have no doubt it is Orion that you see. One of the stars that you last found is in his foot, and the other is in his shoulder.”

“I wish I could see his shape,” said Rollo, “all drawn out in the sky.”

“It would be very convenient, I have no doubt,” replied his father. “Pretty near the lowest of the three stars in the row, there is a faint cluster of stars, towards the south.”

“Yes, sir,” said Rollo; “I see them.”

“They are in Orion’s sword,” said his father.

“I see them,” said Rollo.

“Now, look at all the stars in the constellation again, and notice how they lie in respect to each other, so that you will know the constellation when you see it again.”

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