t seemed to the Others that the Princess was a long time coming. And once they had been afraid they wouldn’t be ready in time. But they were—too soon, and it was the watching that made it seem so long. They flew when they saw her, and hurried her along. “It’s something to surprise you,” said Miss Phyllisy.
“We did it all this morning,” added Pat.
“Thought of it and gathered them and everything,” chattered the Kitten, walking on all sides of them.
“Don’t you tell,” warned Pat’s eyebrows.
150“You couldn’t guess, could you?” asked the Kitten.
“Now stop; from here,” said Phyllisy, “shut your eyes and we’ll lead you so you won’t see too soon.”
So the Princess shut her eyes, and Pat and Phyllisy led her and the Kitten went ahead over the lawn until they said, “Now, open!”
Directly before them was the great wicker chair from the piazza, sitting under a tree. But nobody would have known it was that chair at all—so trimmed and flowery.
There were pink and purple and white ones from the garden, and tall plumes of small feathery ones, that were wild ones, nodding on the back, and all lovely.
“Do you notice what they are?” asked Phyllisy. “We wouldn’t have any other kind.”
“Do you know why we had that kind?” asked Pat.
“They’re stars!” cried the Kitten.
“Because you said ‘asters’ meant stars,” said Phyllisy.
“And it’s Cassiopeia’s!—For you!” they all finished. “Do you like it?”
And the Princess reached around and gathered them all into one four-sided hug, because how she loved it she couldn’t otherwise tell. And Cassiopeia’s never had a quarter so many stars. “We didn’t leave one in the garden,—large enough to pick,” said Pat.
151“That’s where you’re going to sit to tell the story,” said the Kitten.
“And when you’re ready, we’ll lead you up to it, and make ‘salaams,’” said Miss Phyllisy.
When she had admired more particularly the way they had done it, she was ready, and they went off to the next tree to come back properly, Pat and Miss Phyllisy leading the Princess, and the Kitten holding up her gown behind.
Then the Princess turned around and stood in front of the chair, and the Others stood facing her in a row.
“Salaam alek?m,” said the Princess, bowing very low and saluting with her down-dropped hand from her feet, to her heart, to her forehead, in two scallops.
“Alek?m essalaam,” replied the Others, saluting the same to her.
And to the Princess and Miss Phyllisy and the Kitten it was a kind of game they played, but it was not play at all to Pat. Even the little children said, “My compliments to you,” like that, where she came from.
“This story begins with Perseus and Andromeda sitting in a favorite place of theirs, where three tall poplars grow on the bank of the Starland River,” the Princess announced when she had taken her seat.
152“The three sisters that were changed into them?” asked Phyllisy.
The Princess nodded. “Must have been.”
“Is it a real river?” asked Pat. “Like any river?”
“Like all the most beautiful rivers in the world in one, only changed into star-meanings—fireflies winking among the reeds, and fairy trees along the banks, with strange glowing fruit and blossoms on their shadowy branches. The poplars carry theirs proudly on their tops, like a crown.”
“It’s something Beyond, isn’t it, Dearie?—to understand just what it’s like,” suggested Phyllisy, “you have to know it inside, and stop.”
“That’s the only way,” said the Princess. “It’s gone in the telling—like fairy gold when you touch it. But the river was there in Starland, and there were Perseus and Andromeda having a cosy talk.
“‘What do you suppose ails Little Bear, to make him act so?’ said she.
“‘How does he act?’ asked Perseus.
“‘I don’t see how you could have helped noticing him. It’s ever since my birthday. He hops when he walks, and looks so important; and lately he has taken to going off by himself—nobody knows where. I believe he’s planning something.’
153“‘Let’s watch him, and find out what it is.’
“‘Yes. That’s what I spoke about it for. But we mustn’t let him guess we are watching. It would spoil his fun.’
“‘Of course not,’ said Perseus.
“A few nights later, Perseus beckoned mysteriously to Andromeda. She was listening to old Aquarius. She often went to visit him, and it pleased him even more than it bored her, so she liked to do it.
“But when she saw Perseus, she made her escape as quickly as she could, and came to him.
“‘What is it?’ she whispered.
“‘Little Bear has just gone again. I saw him coming toward Orion’s garden. Orion was there, and Little Bear pretended he was going by—not anywhere in particular. Then Orion came out of the garden and went toward Sagittarius’ House, and Little Bear turned in, quick as a wink, and went through and on—down the Milky Way.’
“‘Come, quick!’ said Andromeda. ‘Are you sure you know which way he went?’
“‘Yes. We’ll find him easily enough.’
“Orion had come back to his garden, but they were in such haste they didn’t even see that he was there. He 154watched them whisk through, and as they were going out at the farther side, he called to them: ‘Did you come to see me?’
“‘No,’ answered Perseus. ‘What makes you think we did?’
“‘Because you are in my garden.’
“‘We aren’t now,’ said Andromeda over her shoulder—pushing Perseus ahead of her. ‘You don’t mind, do you?’
“‘No. Only you might say good-evening.’
“‘We do,’ she called. ‘But we can’t stop now.’
“So she and Perseus ran on, and before long they caught sight of Little Bear. They crept cautiously nearer, where they could watch him unseen. He was hunting for something.
“‘What do you suppose it is?’ whispered Andromeda.
“‘I can’t make out—wait—there! What’s that he’s found?’
“‘It’s a meteor bush,’ said she.
“Little Bear stopped by the bush—looked at it—looked around him; then he trotted on—hunting for something.
“They watched him find another bush—and another; and each time look back and forth. It was very mysterious.
 
LITTLE BEAR STOPPED BY THE BUSH
155“‘He is fixing the places in his mind, so that he can come back to them again!’ exclaimed Andromeda.
“‘That’s it,’ agreed Perseus. ‘I wonder what for.’
“‘We’ll find out.—Be careful! He’s coming home.’
“They kept close until Little Bear had trotted by them and was out of sight. Then they went themselves to examine the bushes. But that didn’t help them to understand. They were the ordinary kind of wild meteors that never grow very large; and they were still quite green.
“So they gave up puzzling about it, and went back to be civil to Orion. But when he wanted to know why they were in such a hurry, they were so mysterious he thought they had a secret; and he never guessed that the secret was Little Bear’s, and one reason why they wouldn’t tell was because they didn’t know it themselves!
“They began to think they never were going to know, for Little Bear didn’t go off again and gave them no chance to find out.”
“I thought I knew, once,” said Miss Phyllisy. “But I don’t know so well now. Can you guess, Pat?”
Pat shook her head. “No. But she’ll tell us.” And the Princess went on to tell them, in her own way:—
“Cepheus awoke one night, the first of the Star People. As he turned his head quickly, something bobbed against 156his forehead; and he could see—out of the tail of his eye—something dangling that moved when he did. He took off his crown and looked at it. There was a rather wilted green meteor tucked into it. He knew he didn’t put it there himself, but he didn’t take it out, and while he was thinking about it, Draco woke.
“He gave his wings a flap to see that the joints worked right, and something fell out of the fold of one of them. What should it be but a little green meteor with a very short stem!
“‘That’th funny,’ he said. Then he stuck it on one of the sharp prongs of his wing, and came over to Cepheus.
“‘Thee what I’ve got,’ he said.
“‘So have I,’ said Cepheus. ‘Where did they come from?’
“‘Maybe it’th a joke. Do you thuppoth any one elth hath them?—I’m going to look.’
“‘Cathiopeia hath!’ he called, in a whisper. ‘Right on the arm of her chair bethide her.’
“Cepheus was perfectly willing to have some one else do the running about; so he waited, and in a few minutes Draco came back to him.
“‘Every thingle perthon around here hath one,’ he said. ‘Herculeth’ ith thtuck into the crook of hith thumb 157where he’th holding hith club; and Pertheuth’ hath two thnakes twithted around it on hith Gorgon’th head.’
“But the time was gone by to discuss it quietly, for Cassiopeia was awake. By chance, her meteor was the first thing her eye rested upon.
“‘What is that?’ she said to herself, and picked it up. ‘I’d like to know where that came from. See here!’ she called to Cepheus, and her voice began to sound excited. ‘Look at that!’
“He came toward her, and Draco followed him. ‘What is it?’ he asked, pretending not to know.”
“To be funny?” asked Pat.
“Yes. Cepheus was a bit of a wag in his way. ‘Can’t you see?’ Cassiopeia asked impatiently. ‘A little wilted green meteor!’
“‘What of it? It won’t hurt you.’
“‘Of course it won’t! But how did it come here?’
“‘You must have put it there yourself, to decorate.’
“‘Now you know better. Wouldn’t I know it if—Why! You’ve got one yourself!’ she almost shrieked.
“‘Have I?’ asked Cepheus, innocently.
“‘There—in your crown!’ and she pointed to it. And Draco could not keep still another second.
“‘We’ve all got them!’ he cried. Then Cassiopeia 158knew they had been pretending—to make sport of her; and that was the time everybody else had to wake up!”
“It was Little Bear put them,” said the Kitten.
“That was the very person. And Andromeda guessed it at once. But even she couldn’t guess why. So she chose to wait a little before she spoke. Perseus must have forgotten, or it took him longer to wake up; but suddenly it occurred to him too. Andromeda pulled his elbow just as the word was at his lips. ‘Don’t say anything,’ she whispered. ‘Look at Little Bear!’
“Perseus looked; and it was hard not to laugh. Little Bear did laugh—in his own way. He twinkled! He was close by Cassiopeia’s chair, and fairly bursting with importance and excitement, but he was so little they quite overlooked him.
“Cassiopeia went straight on talking.
“‘I want to understand it,’ she said. ‘It seems as if it must mean something, and I can’t see one bit of sense in it,—just little green meteors that won’t go off. What are they for?’
“‘Little Bear knows,’ said Andromeda, quickly. She was afraid his feelings would be hurt to hear his meteors spoken of disrespectfully.
159“‘Little Bear!’ cried Cassiopeia; and the Star People fell back in a circle and left him in the centre, the twinkles running over his fur as he laughed inside and shook with excitement.
“‘Little Bear,’ said Cassiopeia, ‘did you do it?’
“Little Bear’s eyes danced with delight; then he buried his nose in Cassiopeia’s dress.
“‘Of course he did,’ said Perseus. ‘We saw him hunting for them.’
“‘But what is it for?’ she insisted.
“‘I know—I know!’ cried Draco. ‘Don’t you know what night thith ith? It’th the night Little Bear got hith Thtar!’
“‘And he means it instead of a birthday!’ cried Cassiopeia. ‘Don’t you remember? We said we’d keep it if we knew when it was.’
“Andromeda was on her knees beside Little Bear, her arms around him, when Orion and the Pleiades girls arrived—each with a little green meteor—to know what it meant. Then how they did chatter!—a regular Star People’s chorus.
“‘Now, wasn’t that the cleverest Little Bear you ever heard of?’ said Maia. ‘Just think of his picking them all with his little nose, for us.’
160“‘And tucking them in where we’d be sure to find them,’ said Alcyone.
“‘I wish I’d seen him traveling back and forth while we were asleep,’ said Orion. ‘How many times do you suppose he went through my garden?’
“‘If we knew how many he brought at onthe, we could tell,’ said Draco. ‘Jutht count how many there are of uth.’
“It seemed as if they never would make an end of petting Little B............