here came a frost one night, and it was most exciting in the morning to see the bewitchments everywhere. sometimes it was whole trees and rows of trees solid gold, and sometimes it was only one tiny branch blazing red by itself out of plain green. it was joyful surprises every minute to walk in it. they filled their hands with leaves, more than they could hold, gathered one by one—and each the most beautiful they had found. the others gave them to the princess until her hands were brimming; then they filled their own, but they were still for her.
before they could believe it, they came to the hill that 172was the round top of the world. it was covered with short grass, very slippery to climb but worth while, for from it they could see world-without-end, and ocean. there were mountains, far away, on three sides, and on the fourth—also far away—was the ocean, set up on edge. the sharp top line of it came opposite, but everything was below them, with long slopes going wide, and they were up in the middle, directly under the deep blue sky. and they could see frost-bewitchments over all the land.
on the face of the very blue sea were tiny white flecks that were ships. they looked as if they were climbing up, or slipping down, on account of the sea being set up on edge.
“suppose this,” said miss phyllisy to pat and the kitten (the princess was looking off, thinking: “what if the finest ship afloat were coming?” and the others wouldn’t disturb her). “suppose this: wouldn’t it be funny if a ship went straight up; and it climbed up until it came to the edge, and then kept going straight on ahead—off into the air?”
“but it couldn’t,” said pat. “it has to stick right on; and then it keeps rounding over until it is curling under. it does, truly,” she insisted, though they didn’t contradict her, “because i’ve done it—when i came; and it goes 173right along and nobody would know, but still it is curling under; and you would think it was going straight ahead, because—i ought to know, because i’ve been clear under, halfway around; and it’s night there now. now that is really true. honestly!”
“that is the way it is, honestly,” said the princess, for she had heard all they said. “you can’t get off. straight ahead you go and seem to go and keep going; and back you come to the place you started from—if you go long enough, because you’re tied down to it. but it’s a beautiful old earth to travel on, isn’t it?—and starland to see besides.”
“orion could sail straight off in a star-ship,” said the kitten.
“of course the star people could go anywhere,” agreed phyllisy. “how far could they go, truly straight ahead, dearie?”
“to the other end of nowhere, and be no nearer the end—i should say. but they don’t go, because their law says they are to stay in their own starland.”
“then they’ll be there at night,” said the kitten.
“where would they go?” asked pat.
“to other starlands,” said the princess. and that was a surprising answer, because not one of them supposed 174there could be any others. “the star people say there are,” the princess assured them, “and i should think they ought to know.”
“but how would they know, if they never go to them?” miss phyllisy objected.
“partly by seeing. for instance, there are the far-away isles—two little filmy streaks of light away down in the southern sky, that look like scraps of the milky way. the star people often talk about them; and from time to time some bit of news comes trickling in about outside places, nobody knows how—vague rumors. it made a story one time, news coming that way,” she ended, looking very attentively at a leaf in her hand, and turning it over to examine the back, as if she didn’t know what was expected of her!
but the others were immediately disposing of their leaves where they would be safe under stones, hopping and chirping like birds in a bush, to settle themselves on the smooth ledges of rock that came through the hill where it was thin on top, and were toasty warm from the sun. and the princess watched them, smiling to herself, but not saying a word until everybody was comfortable.
“as i told you,” she began, “there are often bits of 175news floating about in starland—a sort of impression of something, very vague, that comes—nobody knows how,—comets, possibly. and nobody would depend on what they said.”
the others were very sure they wouldn’t.
“neither would i,” said the princess. “and perhaps that isn’t the way it comes. but it comes some way. sometimes vaguer and other times more distinct. this time, all at once, there sprang up a real, definite rumor: they were to have a visitor!
“orion was the person who first spoke of it to the pleiades girls. they were dancing a pretty, twisty dance when he came strolling along and called to them:—
“‘are you practicing to be ready for company?’
“they didn’t catch what he said, and taygeta would have stopped, but maia wouldn’t let them. so orion waited and watched while they untangled and finished in a straight line; and he might have gone far to see anything so pretty as they were, in their gauzy gowns all a-glimmer with tiny stars.
“‘now you may talk, if you like,’ said maia. ‘alcyone often makes a mistake in that, so i wanted to go straight through it.’
“‘what dance was that?’ asked orion.
176“‘that’s one of the “sailor’s knots,”’ said taygeta. ‘there’s such a lot of them!’
“‘yes,’ said alcyone, ‘and they are a good deal alike and entirely different. any one might be mixed. you have to tie them up, first, and then untangle them.’
“‘she can do it perfectly well when she wants to,’ said maia. ‘all our family know about ocean things; but any one can make her giggle and be silly.’
“‘what was it you said as you came?’ asked merope, quickly. she had tact about changing the subject.
“‘i don’t remember. nothing much,’ said orion.
“‘yes, it was,’ said taygeta. ‘something about company.’
“‘oh, yes. haven’t you heard?’
“‘heard what?’
“‘tell us—quick!’ they all spoke together; and they should have known better than to let orion see how eager they were. it gave him a chance to tease.
“‘why—some one. oh, i’m sure you must have heard. you don’t want me to tell it all over again?’
“‘yes, we do—’
“‘no, we haven’t—’
“‘now, don’t be so mean—’
“‘don’t ask him,’ said maia. ‘he’s dying to tell.’
177“then they said not another word, but stood in a lovely row, locking arms and balancing on their toes, and looked at him; and orion looked back at them. then he pushed his lion’s skin up over his shoulder and spoke to his dogs:—
“‘come, sirius! we’d better go and get ready before the stranger comes,’ and he turned to go. but there were seven girls to stop him, and they were around him in a second.
“‘no, you shall not—’
“‘now, orion—’
“‘oh, please—’
“‘what is it?’ they asked; and he was dying to tell!
“‘i can’t tell you so very much,’ he said. ‘but they say we are to have a visitor from the far-away isles.’
“‘who says so?’
“‘who is coming?’
“‘when will he be here?’
“‘what is he coming for?’ they were like seven interrogation points!
“‘i don’t know,’ said orion. ‘i don’t remember who told me—and i’m not quite sure what. everybody but you seems to know about it.’
“‘did you ever know any one so tiresome?’ asked 178maia. and six pleiades girls said they never had, and ‘we’ll have to ask some one else.’
“so, off they went to try to find out what was going to happen; and how anybody knew about it.
“it was a curious thing, but by the time they had talked with the other star people, they were in the same state as orion and all the others. no one could tell quite where he had heard it, and no one knew exactly what he had heard; but every one had a perfectly clear impression that a visitor was coming from the far-away isles.
“when they tried to talk a little more definitely about him, they did not altogether agree. still, there was a strong idea that he was young and splendid and handsome, of course; some one very distinguished in his own country.”
“a prince, for instance?” asked phyllisy.
“more than likely.—
“‘what do you suppose he is coming for?’ asked maia.
“‘perhapth, becauth he’th going to all the thtar-countrieth,’ said draco. ‘he couldn’t do that unleth he came here.’
“‘that’s so,’ said hercules. ‘we’re one of ’em.’
“‘you’re mistaken,’ said cepheus. ‘he’s heard about the prettiest seven sisters in starland, and he wants to take his choice of them back with him. you’ll have to 179polish up your stars, girls, and dance your best for him.’ (that was his idea of a joke!)
“‘indeed we won’t!’ said electra, with her nose very high. ‘we care nothing about him.’
“‘no,’ said alcyone. ‘we won’t do one thing!’
“‘now, don’t you put nonsense into their heads,’ said cassiopeia to cepheus. ‘he’s just coming to be friendly, and because he can; and i think it’s lovely. we are going to do everything possible to give him a fine welcome; and the girls will look just as pretty as they can, to be a credit to us all.’
“‘i wish merope’s star were brighter,’ said celeno. ‘do you think there is anything we could do about it?’
“there was one thing they could do: they could talk! and they began that very minute. it seems hardly possible that people could talk so much about so little! no one had thought before that merope was not quite as she should be. if her star was faint and vanished when one looked hard at it, that was the way of merope’s star, and that was all there was about it.
“but now, with the thought of stranger eyes, they began to feel that perhaps it was extraordinary that she should be different from her sisters. and the more they thought and talked about it, the more important it seemed to be.
180“every one had some suggestion to make, except poor merope herself; she never had given it a thought, and now she declared she didn’t care.
“‘but we care,’ said maia. ‘it isn’t creditable to our family. what will the stranger think, to see you different from us?’
“so they talked—and talked—”
“why didn’t they give her a star?—like little bear?” asked the kitten.
“they would have given it, gladly, but merope wouldn’t take it; and, what is more, none of them had a star of the right kind to give.”
“they’re terribly particular about them, aren’t they?” said phyllisy.
“they have to be,” answered the princess. “but not in the way they were now. those foolish people went on talking, and fixed their eyes and their thoughts on the star until they quite lost their senses, and it seemed the most calamitous thing that could happen—that the splendid stranger should come from the far-away isles and see merope with the puzzling star above her forehead.
“one night, at this time, perseus came along by the river, and there he found merope sitting alone. she was thinking so deeply she didn’t see him until he was close beside her.
he found merope sitting alone
181“‘where are the rest of you?’ he asked.
“‘dancing somewhere; i don’t know where. i came here to think.’
“that sounded pretty sad to perseus, and he tried to say something to cheer her.
“‘i wouldn’t worry about that star. you look all right.’
“‘i wouldn’t mind for myself,’ said merope; ‘but i’m not going to disgrace my family.’
“it was not long after this that the six pleiades began to say: ‘where is merope?’ and then the other star people said: ‘where can merope be?’—until the whole sky seemed one great question; and the nearest it came to an answer was that perseus had seen her sitting on the bank of the river, quite downcast, but plainly resolved to do something.
“cassiopeia was so worried, she lost her temper.
“‘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.’
182“‘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, 183what 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?’
184“‘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?’
“merope’s arm was around little bear, as he sat close beside her, and she drooped her head until her chin touched his sharp little ear and bent it over.
“‘i wanted a new star,’ she said very softly. ‘wait—i’ll tell you all about it. i thought you were ashamed of me, and i didn’t want to disgrace you; and i thought and thought until i made up my mind to go where they were made, and get a new one.’
“‘but how could you be gone from your place?’ asked maia. ‘don’t you know it’s been clear weather?’
“‘yes,’ said merope. ‘but i knew my star was so dull it wasn’t likely i’d be missed. i’m not very important.’
185“‘yes, you are—just as important as any of us,’ said taygeta.
“‘and we’ve been almost crazy, missing you,’ said cassiopeia. ‘even major had the fidgets. i think our feelings ought to be considered.’
“‘i know it. i’m sorry now. i didn’t think of that.’
“‘but tell us what you did,’ said orion. it seemed almost impossible to keep them to the subject.
“‘i will. you know the place—off that way,’ and she pointed over the river. ‘i knew all i had to do was to keep going straight on until i came there. so i slipped off quietly, when you were all busy.’
“‘if i’d seen you start, you wouldn’t have gone,—unless i went too,’ said hercules. ‘it wasn’t safe—a girl all alone.’
“‘but what happened? did anything frighten you?’
“‘no. only the dark, and cold.’
“‘dark! was it really dark, merope?’
“‘well—i never heard anything like that!’ said cassiopeia.
(“the reason they were so astonished is because it never is dark in starland. there is always the starlight.” the princess answered the question the others didn’t ask, except by looks. “oh—h!” they murmured.)
186“‘yes, it was,’ said merope, ‘part of the time. not at first. after i crossed the river i went straight on for a good while; it was about like this,’ she waved her hand. ‘it was all right until it was dark—’ then she stopped talking just at the most interesting place.
“‘oh, go on, merope!’ said alcyone. ‘where was it dark?’
“‘i don’t believe i can explain it. it came all at once—everywhere—as if i had walked off the edge—into the sea; only there wasn’t any sea. there wasn’t anything!’
“‘there was you, wasn’t there?’ asked perseus.
“‘yes. but i knew there wouldn’t be, long.’
“‘i wish you would explain things as you go along,’ said cassiopeia.
“‘i’ll try,’ said merope. ‘but it’s very perplexing. it was perfectly dark; you never saw any dark like it—’
“‘you can’t see dark, ever,’ said orion. ‘that’s what it is.’
“‘that’s what i meant. you couldn’t see it; even my own little stars were out’ (she glanced at her dress), ‘and it was cold—deathly! and not a sound—and i didn’t know which way anything was. i was just colder and colder, and still—and i knew, someway, i was going out.’
187“‘out where?’ asked hercules.
“‘nowhere,’ said merope. ‘like a candle.’
“‘goodness! weren’t you frightened?’ asked andromeda.
“‘yes. and i tried to think what to do, but i couldn’t. i kept growing colder and stiller—i couldn’t move. then i thought about all of you, and there came a little warmth inside, and i knew the cold couldn’t reach me.’
“‘because love was stronger than cold or dark?’ suggested andromeda.
“‘yes; that was it. nothing could put it out.’
“‘then how did you find your way out?’ asked cepheus, after a minute.
“‘that was easy. when i thought of you and home, something pulled me; so i knew which way you were.’
“‘then you came back,’ said taygeta.
“‘no, i didn’t. i couldn’t come without the star. and i thought if i kept going in the direction i started, i’d come to the right place. so i kept on, the way i didn’t want to go.’
“‘now, i call that downright clever!’ said draco. ‘it thowth what it ith to uthe your reathon.’
“‘merope always was the brightest one of our family, really,’ said maia. ‘what did you do then?’
188“‘kept on. and after i came out of the dark i was not very far from the new stars.’
“‘oh, tell us about them!’ said cassiopeia. ‘how are they made? tell us every single thing!’
“‘i can’t,’ said merope. ‘i’m not good at understanding such things. there were a great many—all colors. i think they are made of something very light—and spread out—it was like fog, in places; then, in other places, it was whirling—i don’t know what makes it begin to whirl: then it seemed to thicken up, when it whirled—’
“‘how, thicken up?’ asked orion.
“‘i can’t explain; but the star-fog collected and drew together into a ball, and that was the star. there were all sizes and kinds. sometimes there was one in the centre and more little stars whirling around in rings outside it. and trails of fog—i never could describe it. you would have to see for yourself. and they sang. oh, it was beautiful!’ then she stopped again, to recall it; and that was trying to the others, because she certainly did not make things very clear to them.
“‘now, merope,’ said cassiopeia, ‘you give your mind to it, and describe things a little better. i wish i’d gone myself. i could tell what i’d seen and heard. what was the singing like?’
189“‘it wasn’t like anything,’ said merope. ‘that’s why i can’t tell you. it was quite, quite beautiful. every star—when it whirled—seemed to have its own song—’
“‘like tops?’ asked perseus.
“‘perhaps, a little—’ said merope, doubtfully; ‘and all the songs made one; and—i don’t know what it said, but i think—’ then she hesitated.
“‘go on!’ said maia.
“‘i think it said, they were glad they were alive.’
“‘of course,’ said cassiopeia. ‘then what?’
“‘then it was time for me to come home.’
“‘didn’t you dread coming through the dark place again?’ asked electra.
“‘yes. but i knew i could get through. and it wasn’t so hard as going; all i had to do was to come the way i wanted to. so i just came.’
“‘but, merope,’ said andromeda, ‘where is your new star?’
“then every one of the star people looked at merope, and saw—what not one of them had noticed before, they were so glad to have her back—her own, strange, vanishing star still glinted above her forehead.
“‘couldn’t you find the right kind?’ asked taygeta.
“‘weren’t you allowed to have it?’ asked orion.
190“‘did you lothe it, coming back?’ asked draco.
“‘answer, merope!’ said cassiopeia.
“merope looked confused, and she bent over little bear once more (he was a very convenient little bear), but she had to speak.
“‘there were plenty of stars,’ she said slowly, ‘and i might have taken one, but when i saw them—all so splendid—they didn’t seem like me; and then i thought you all loved me, and i knew you didn’t care really, for the star; and i liked my own best. so—i just came home.’
“‘we’re glad, merope,’ said andromeda. ‘we love you best like this.’
“and every one of the star people felt the same.”
“we do too, dearie,”said phyllisy. “that was the best ending.”
pat and the kitten wriggled and nodded, and the princess smiled at them, but she held up her finger for them to wait for the very end.
“then it was merope’s turn to ask a question. but it didn’t occur to her until a little later.
“the sisters were dancing—the very prettiest and most twirly of the ‘sailor’s knots’—and merope was the centre of the twist, when she stopped short and asked:—
the sisters were dancing—the very prettiest and most twirly of the “sailor’s knots”
191“‘when will the stranger be here?’
“the star people looked at each other in complete astonishment. they had forgotten all about him.
“‘he isn’t coming,’ said orion, after a pause.
“‘how do you know he isn’t?’ asked hercules.
“‘the same way we knew he was,’ answered orion.
“‘i’d jutht like to know who thtarted that thtory,’ said draco. ‘i believe it wath a comet!’
“‘so do i,’ said cassiopeia.”
“truly was it?” asked the kitten.
“what do you think?” asked the princess.
then all the questions they had kept inside of them began to come out, and they lasted down the hill—very jerky, on account of having to run or slip—and most of the long way back. but there was time beside to gather more leaves to take the place of those they had forgotten and left safe under small stones on the hill-top!
there were thousands and thousands of them fallen, too beautiful to pass over, so it was just as well.
