<h2> THE GIANT PLANETS. </h2>
<h3 class="notop"> THE PLANET SATURN. </h3>
<p>Harry had spent a most delightful evening
looking through Uncle Robert's telescope at the
little moons of Jupiter, and he also had seen the
planet Saturn, with its rings and moons. Next
evening when his sister came to talk with him he
had many questions to ask her. First of all he
wanted to know what the rings were made of.</p>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_95' name='Page_95'>[95]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter p6">
<ANTIMG src="images/i-093.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="255" alt="THE RINGED PLANET SATURN." />
<p class="caption">THE RINGED PLANET SATURN.</p>
</div>
<p>"Millions of little moons," replied his sister.
"I wish you could see Saturn and its rings through
the great telescope at the Lick Observatory. It
makes such a pretty picture. Like Jupiter, the
planet Saturn is surrounded by clouds; but they
are tinted with blue at the poles, yellow elsewhere,
and dotted here and there with brown; purple, and
red spots. Around the center is a creamy white
belt. Then, there are eight moons that accompany
Saturn in its journey around the sun; but they
give very little light to the planet, since if they
could all be full together they would give but a
sixteenth part of the light we receive from the
moon."</p>
<p>"Why is that?" asked Harry.</p>
<h3 class="notop"> THE PLANET URANUS. </h3>
<p>"Because Saturn is so far away from the Sun,"
replied Mary. "Next to Saturn we find Uranus.
This planet was first seen by William Herschel,
who afterwards became one of the greatest astronomers
the world has ever known. When
Herschel was a little boy his home was in Hanover.
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_96' name='Page_96'>[96]</SPAN></span>
He had great talent for music, and when
he was fourteen years old he joined the band of
the Hanoverian Guards. What a proud boy he
was when he dressed in his new uniform! However,
pride must have a fall, and it was not very
long before he wished he had never entered the
army. Just about this time war broke out between
France and England, and as Hanover
belonged to the English it was attacked by the
French. The Hanoverian Guards were badly defeated.
Herschel spent the night after the battle
hiding away in a ditch, and next day, assisted by
his friends, he ran away to England. There he
continued his musical studies, and some years later
he became a fine organist."</p>
<p>"Did he have to play a big organ like the one
in our church?" asked Harry.</p>
<p>"Something like that, I suppose," said Mary;
"and he played very well indeed. He learned
more and more about music, and in the evenings
when going and coming from the church he used
to notice the beautiful stars overhead, and he
wished to learn something about them."
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_97' name='Page_97'>[97]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Just the way I feel," said Harry. "I get
nurse to pull up the window curtain at night so
that I can see the stars from my bed, and they
seem to laugh and wink their little eyes at me as
if they knew I was watching them. Did Herschel
have a telescope like the one Uncle Robert
has?"</p>
<p>"He was not so fortunate, but he wanted one
very much indeed. So he borrowed a telescope
from a friend, and every night after practicing in
the church he would amuse himself looking at
the stars. He longed to have a telescope of his
own; but he found that they cost more than he
could afford to pay, so he decided to make one.
He bought all that was necessary, and turned his
home for the time into a workshop. He had a
dear, good-natured sister named Caroline, and she
did all she could to help her brother. Sometimes
he was too busy to eat and she used to feed him.
When he was tired she would read to him from
the 'Arabian Nights.'"</p>
<p>"The same book I have?" asked Harry, in
surprise.
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_98' name='Page_98'>[98]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"The very same; and this helped to pass away
the time while Herschel polished away on the
great mirror of his telescope. When the telescope
was finished people came from far and near
to see it. One evening when Herschel was gazing
at the stars with this magic glass he spied a
star not marked down on his charts. 'Something
wrong here,' thought Herschel; 'this must be a
comet.' But after noticing it for a while he found
that it was not a comet, but a planet or wanderer
among the stars."</p>
<h3 class="notop"> DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PLANET AND A STAR. </h3>
<p>"How could he tell the difference?" asked
Harry. "When I looked at Planet Jupiter last
night it looked like the stars, only rounder and
bigger."</p>
<p>"The planets are so much nearer to us than the
stars that we can follow them as they slowly creep
between us and the stars in their journey around
the sun. The stars are so far away that we would
have to watch them for thousands of years before
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_99' name='Page_99'>[99]</SPAN></span>
they would seem to move at all, yet we know they
are moving."</p>
<p>"Are the stars moving?" said Harry, in surprise.</p>
<p>"Yes, they are moving, just as distant steamers
seen at sea are moving; but they are so far away
that they seem motionless. Don't you remember
how we used to watch them from the seashore.
Still they were going as fast as steam could take
them. We might compare the steamers to the
stars, and the little boats nearer shore were more
like the planets. We could easily follow the boats
with our eyes as they danced over the waves, and
in the same way we can easily follow the planets
as they creep across the sky, because they are so
much nearer to us than the stars."</p>
<p>"The new planet was called Uranus, although
at first the friends of Herschel wanted to name
it after him. Next to Uranus comes the planet
Neptune, which was discovered before it was ever
seen."
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_100' name='Page_100'>[100]</SPAN></span></p>
<h3 class="notop"> THE DISCOVERY OF PLANET NEPTUNE. </h3>
<p>"How could that happen?" asked Harry.</p>
<p>"Because Uranus behaved so strangely," replied
his sister. "The planets attract each other; for
instance, the earth is swayed to and fro by Jupiter
and Venus, and a great struggle is always
going on among the planets in the family of Giant
Sun. It could be plainly seen that Saturn was
taking part in the struggle and dragging Uranus
toward it, but something beyond the newly discovered
planet was pulling it the other way.
'There must be another planet,' said the astronomers,
and they were right. After puzzling over
the problem two astronomers found the truant,
and announced exactly when and where it was to
be seen. And there it was, nearly exactly where
these learned men said it would be. The new
planet was christened Neptune, and it takes about
one hundred and sixty-four years to go around the
sun. It is so far away from the sun that it only
receives one nine-hundredth of the amount of
light and heat we receive on planet earth."
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_101' name='Page_101'>[101]</SPAN></span></p>
<p>"Then it must be very cold on planet Neptune?"
said Harry.</p>
<p>"And very dark also," said Mary, "since from
this planet the sun only looks as large as an electric
light seen at a distance of a few feet."</p>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_102' name='Page_102'>[102]</SPAN></span></p>
<div class="figcenter p6">
<ANTIMG src="images/i-100.jpg" width-obs="500" height-obs="587" alt="SIZE OF PLANETS, COMPARED WITH THE SUN." />
<p class="caption">SIZE OF PLANETS, COMPARED WITH THE SUN.</p>
<SPAN id='P102' name='P102'></SPAN></div>
<h3> "IS IT TRUE?" </h3>
<p class="center">
BY MORGAN GROWTH.</p>
<div class='poetry-container'>
<div class="poem">
<div class="stanza">
<p>She stood where the winter sunlight</p>
<p class="i1">Seemed opening into the skies—</p>
<p>(She was only a little girl, you see,</p>
<p class="i1">And her teacher was old and wise).</p>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<p>"You never can be promoted,"</p>
<p class="i1">That wise, wise teacher said,</p>
<p>"For the lesson you need the most of all</p>
<p class="i1">You leave unlearned, little maid."</p>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<p>"I didn't like to say it"—</p>
<p class="i1">Her answer was grave, and slow—</p>
<p>"That the earth goes whirling 'round like a ball,</p>
<p class="i1">For I don't see how they know.</p>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<p>"I'll write it down on my paper,</p>
<p class="i1">(The one that I hand to you)</p>
<p>But when I die I shall find the Lord,</p>
<p class="i1">And ask Him if it's true."</p>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<p>The classes were called without her,</p>
<p class="i1">And the schooldays come and go,</p>
<p>And other children wonder and wait—</p>
<p class="i1">It is hers alone to know.</p>
<span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_103' name='Page_103'>[103]</SPAN></span></div>
<div class="stanza">
<p>Sometimes, in the empty schoolroom,</p>
<p class="i1">The teacher is left alone</p>
<p>With the echoes that linger about the place</p>
<p class="i1">And call from stone to stone.</p>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<p>And, lo, with this world's learning</p>
<p class="i1">Before his wondering view,</p>
<p>He goes to his Lord—his all-wise Lord,</p>
<p class="i1">And asks Him if it's true.</p>
</div>
<div class="stanza">
<p><span class="flright">—<i>From Child-Study Monthly.</i></span></p>
</div>
</div></div>
<p><span class='pagenum'><SPAN id='Page_104' name='Page_104'>[104]</SPAN></span>
<SPAN id='P104' name='P104'></SPAN></p>
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