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Show Daddy's I .Cl Fairi 'fcxlo t Mr GRAHAM BONNER c wiiw Ntywi union - 1 THE MILKY WAY Now thoy traveled rlglit along the Milky Way, and of all tlie wonderful things Harry hiifl ever done in his life, or ever expected to do, this was the most wonderful. He had seen so many clusters and stars and constellations whose homes had been along here, but now the pilot traveled along this most heavenly roadway without stopping. "The best times to see it from the earth," Cosmo told Harry, "are July, August, September and October. Don't think it divides the heavens in half, for the northern sky has more of the Milky Way than the southern. It takes a trip, too. It winds Its way among the constellations and I've always al-ways thought it so nice the way Canis Minor or the Little Dog takes his place right on the border, just as a dog will sit on a doorstep." Oh, what a sight this was, and what an unbelievable trip I They passed by millions and millions of stars. In some parts there were not so many which made it look less populated. In fact, it seemed as though there were great cities of stars with their scattered suburbs of stars spread out beyond them. I The pilot was going slowly. Harry -tried to thlnlc of ways In which to express ex-press what he felt about It, but he knew he could never possibly describe It. It was like traveling through a world or stars, or like going through fields of stars, or oceans of stars. Everywhere Ev-erywhere they gleamed, and twinkled, ZML :.W Just as a Dog Will Sit on a Doorstep. and shone. Everywhere they seemed to smile. And here and there were cloudy patches like misty forests of stars I "Oh, what a sight It is," he said to Cosmo. "And -yet," Cosmo told him, "the sky Is so tremendous and the distances are so great that even if the Milky Way could be blotted out there are stars so far off that the news wouldn't reach them for thousands and thousands thou-sands of years." "It's too much for me," Harry said As they sped along Cosmo told him stories and legends. "Virgo we passed her was supposed sup-posed to have scattered some of her wheat along here. Then a story has it that some magpies built a bridge in the heavens so that two separated lovers lov-ers could travel over it to see each other, while In some countries they told the story of two lovers who built tlie bridge themselves so they could cross over It to see each other. "Some Indians believed that the Milky Way was the path along which the departed souls traveled and that the brighter stars along the borders ; were the campfires where the great spirits rested. Other Indians thought I it was dust kicked up by a buffalo and horse as they raced each other across the sky. "The Norsemen believed it was the path up which the great warriors traveled. trav-eled. In the ancient days it was believed be-lieved that the baby Hercules dropped some of the milk be was drinking and that that made the Milky Way. Nor has science changed that name given to It by that old, old legend." Harry was listening to all that Cosmo Cos-mo was telling him, but so impressed was he by the wonder and the beauty and the tremendous glory of all that he was seeing that he couldn't think of any words at all in which to express ex-press what he thought. He was glad that Cosmo didn't seem to expect, him to say anything. "Tlie Greeks," Cosmo went on, "called this the Road to the Palace of Heaven, and . they believed that along this road were the palaces of the tinest of the gods. "The Eskimos believed the Milky Way to have been made from snow that fell from the snowshoes of the great raven as be walked across the sky." The rockets were being shot off rapidly rap-idly once more. They were speeding along the Milky Way. How lucky It was that the pilot knew how to manage man-age such a ride. But even that thought was unimportant, Harry felt. He could think of nothing but what he saw, and what he saw was too wonderful to put into any words. |