It was with no little impatience that James had waited for the first appearance of the Southern Cross, the emblem of Australia. He first noticed it when a long way north of the equator, and each evening afterwards bestowed a considerable attention upon it. As he made southing on his voyage the glorious constellation rose higher and higher in the heavens. Hour after hour would he sit, marking its progress, wondering much to see it more or less upright according to the time of night, and more or less declining from the perpendicular at the same returning hour of evening upon different days.

James could understand the Cross seeming to perform a circle round the south pole of the heavens, as he had seen the Bear round the north pole, from the rotundity of the earth and its daily motion.

It was quite natural, then, that the lad should be so enthusiastic when he spoke of the constellation to his father in these terms:

“O that pretty Southern Cross! I like it more and more as I get down to the south. I did feel sad to see the old Bear drop gradually, night after night, till it seemed to sink for ever in the northern Atlantic; but I have a new friend here, that keeps rising higher and higher[Pg 29] each night, as if to welcome us to our southern home. How it would please many boys in Europe to see the Cross!

But it was seen in Europe formerly.

Another puzzle, dear father. Did it run away from the south pole to have a look at the north one?

It was not a run, but a gradual slide out of its place, and as gradual a slide back into it again.

What a queer trick! Is it on its rambles now, I wonder?

It is always on the move.

Yes; I know it describes a circle in the sky once in twenty-four hours, but that is owing to the world rolling over to get its daily light.

Yet it has another motion; not really its own any more than the other. And this leads it further away from the central point over our south pole, and then brings it to its place again.

Well, I am glad it is here now for me. Will there be time for my London cousins to catch a glance at it when it wanders northward again?

O no, no; it does not move quite so fast as that. But if Abraham had been sojourning in southern Europe, instead of Asia, he could have seen it, though it was then making its way back to the south.

How could the Cross slip away from the other southern stars to go on such migrations?

Not so. All the stars keep their places relatively[Pg 30] to each other, as you see them do in the nightly progress from east to west. In the daily motion none get before the other, nor did the Cross get before its neighbours.

Well, I am fairly done. That is a riddle.

Look at the question, boy. What makes the apparent daily motion of the stars?

The real daily motion of the earth.

And if, then, you observe any other peculiarity of movement among your bright friends up there, to what may you reasonably ascribe it?

I should imagine some peculiar twist, roll, or slipping of this world of ours.

True. And if there be seen among the polar stars, north as well as south, a slight............