“Nine more days, And then comes a birthday,”
the Kitten sang, over and over, making different tunes each time. She sang it softly, to herself, but it was loud enough to be heard.
“Dear-my-soul!” said the Princess. “Whatever will happen when you’re a seven-year-longlegs, ’stead of six? Skeeters, you know.”
The Kitten stopped singing and rubbed her leg where there were lumpy spots above her socks.
“She’ll have stockings when they get too long,” said Pat.
“And the next thing we know, she’ll begin to be a Cat! Why don’t you have birthdays like the Star People’s?”
134“What kind?” asked the Kitten.
“Steady and reliable,” said the Princess. “Everybody is exactly the right age to begin, and then they never grow any older.”
“But they are different ages,” Pat objected.
“The right age for them,” the Princess explained. “Haven’t you noticed that they were?”
The Others thought about it for a minute, and decided that they couldn’t very well be different.
“But if they are always going along the same, perhaps they wouldn’t notice their birthdays,” said Phyllisy.
“Indeed, they would,” said the Princess, earnestly. “They’re particularly good about remembering dates and anniversaries and times of the year. And they’d never think of letting a birthday go by without noticing it.”
“Would they have a party?” asked the Kitten.
“They do usually. Do you think it would help you along a little through one of those nine days, to hear about one of them?”
And the Kitten seemed to think it would.
“Whose birthday is it going to be?” asked Pat.
“Andromeda’s, the same year that the Sailor’s Star was stolen; and Orion gave the party. You remember the young meteors that he had planted were just coming up in his 135garden when Cassiopeia came to tell him what a misfortune had happened? All those same young plants had kept on growing and growing, unusually well, and Orion was as proud of them as a comet with two tails. They promised to be ripe just in time for Andromeda’s birthday, and he said he would like to give the party.”
“To eat them?” asked Pat.
“Never!” said the Princess. “I thought you knew about meteors: when they are exactly ripe you give them a bit of a pinch. Pop! goes a beautiful starlet with a trail of gold-dust behind it.”
“Fireworks,” said the Kitten.
“That’s the way a balsam seed pops,” said Phyllisy.
“Yes, it reminds me of it,” agreed the Princess. “When they are ripe one has to be very careful not to hit them, or they go off too soon. Orion wouldn’t even pick off a leaf or pull up a weed, he was being so careful to save every one for the birthday celebration; and how he did have to watch the dogs, to keep them out!
“The night before, it was partly cloudy, and Orion almost drove Cassiopeia wild, dodging about behind the drifting clouds, making his last arrangements. Little Bear, too. It seemed as if he were possessed, he who was always so quiet and steady—‘The best Little Bear that ever happened!’ 136Andromeda used to say, when she gave him a bear-hug, and then rubbed his soft fur the wrong way, from his tail clear down his nose, to feel the tingles and see the sparks fly. But no sooner had they begun to talk about her birthday than he began to be excited; and this last night it seemed as if he could not keep still. Whenever a cloud lay so that he could, he would go clear to the edge of it to watch Orion. Once, Cassiopeia could scarcely believe her eyes: there was Orion, talking to Lady Moon behind the clouds; then she saw Little Bear crowding in between them, looking up at them eagerly. Orion was too much engrossed to notice him, but Cassiopeia called at the top of her voice (and it was a very high top), ‘Come here this minute, Little Bear! I should think you were crazy!’
“He heard her, and came prancing back, zigzag, as fast as he could dodge from cloud to cloud. When he was back in his place, barely in the nick of time, his eyes almost twinkled out of his head, and his fur shone so that Cassiopeia could hardly see his stars. She couldn’t help laughing, though she was annoyed. It was bad enough for Orion to dodge around like that; but his legs were so long he could get back to his place always before the clouds floated off.
“The next night no one could have asked for better 137star-weather, just plain clouds, not a jumpy kind to keep them wondering every half-hour what it was going to do.
“A little before midnight the Star People began to come to the party. Orion was the first to arrive, then Hercules and Draco.”
“Not Little Bear?” asked the Kitten.
“He was there without arriving—Andromeda and Cepheus and Cassiopeia and Perseus and Little Bear. Very soon there was such a noise and chattering down the Sky that one might have thought a whole flock of magpies was coming: but Orion and Draco and Cassiopeia knew better, and magpies don’t squeal and giggle quite like that.
“‘Jutht hear thothe Pleiadeth girlth,’ said Draco. ‘I don’t thee how any one can be tho thilly.’
“‘That’s because you never were a girl,’ said Cepheus. At that, Andromeda began to giggle too; and the more she tried to stop, the harder she giggled.
“‘Now, what’th the matter with her?’ asked Draco.
“And then Andromeda squealed, and laughed so she choked, and Perseus had to thump her on the back, while she gasped: ‘To think of Draco’s being a g-gu-girl!—Oh!’
“‘She’s one, all right,’ remarked Orion, ‘and here are the others.’
138“Maybe they were silly, but the seven Misses Pleiades certainly were pretty to look at as they came in sight. Their gowns were of thin golden gauze, with a multitude of tiny stars woven into the underdress; their interlacing beams made a pattern, like gold embroidery, and they shimmered faintly through the mist-like tissue that veiled them.
“They wore no other stars but one above the forehead. The stars of six of the sisters were very brilliant, but the seventh was puzzling. When one gave a quick glance and looked away one could see the star quite plainly; but when one looked directly at her it was gone! It was like the place where a star had been. This sister’s name was Merope, and her eyes were so sweet and gentle that the people who loved her never missed the star from her soft brown hair.
“The tallest of the sisters, whose name was Maia, came ahead (as much as any one could be ahead where they all walked in a bunch!), and she called to Orion: ‘Oh, weren’t you mean! Why didn’t you wait for us?’
“‘Didn’t you hear us calling you?’ cried Taygeta.
“‘We thought we’d be late,’ said Electra (no one thought of waiting for an answer), ‘Taygeta kept us waiting so.’
139“‘I never!’ said Taygeta. ‘It was Alcyone!’ Then they all looked at each other and giggled again, and Andromeda giggled with them, where she and Merope stood with their arms around each other’s waists. It was a giggling match, and Cepheus and Cassiopeia and Orion and Hercules and Perseus and Draco and Castor and Pollux—”
“The Zodiacs?” asked Phyllisy.
“Yes, the Gemini Brothers.”
“Did Sol let them?” asked Pat.
“Of course, for a party. They came just after the Pleiades girls. They all looked at the gigglers, and they smiled because they were young and pretty, and they seemed to know what they were laughing at, but the others couldn’t guess what it was, to save them!”
“Weren’t they silly?” said Pat. “But we do it, too.”
“And quite big girls—much bigger than we,” added Phyllisy.
“Even worse, Miss Phyllisy. I’ve noticed it,” said the Princess.
“Finally Cepheus said: ‘You might as well go home, Orion. These girls don’t want a party to-night.’
“‘Oh, yes, we do!’ they cried. ‘Only Taygeta—’ Then they were off again.
140“‘Come, come!’ said Cassiopeia. ‘Just pretend you have a little sense!’
“‘Draco has!’ cried Andromeda. ‘He never was a girl!’
“Then everybody laughed together—Draco, and all; and when they were quieted down they were ready to begin the party.
“Andromeda and Perseus took Little Bear and went off a little way, while Orion placed the other Star People in two lines that led up to Cassiopeia’s Chair. She and Cepheus stood at the head of the lines, on either side of the chair. And then they began to sing Andromeda’s Birthday Song:—
“The stars sang together at the little maiden’s birth;
They watched her through the years
Of gladness and of tears;
And they said: ‘She’ll come to dwell with us when she shall leave the Earth.
“‘She shall bring an earthly blessing in which we have no part;
We can only shine by night,
When the sun has sunk from sight;
She shall bring the sunshine with her—though it’s hidden in her heart!’
“A thousand, thousand greetings to the maiden, ever young!
As the years the birthdays bring,
The stars together sing
The praise of maid the sweetest whose praise was ever sung!
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