Gertrude Chandler Warner

Taurus, the Bull

You can see this
during December

"The moon is so bright we can't see the stars well, now," Dr. Lorry had telephoned, and it seemed a long time to Helen before they stood once more, looking up at the bright Capella, now much higher up in the sky.

"Helen, what color is Capella?" asked Dr. Lorry.

"White," answered Helen. "All the stars are white."

"Ahem!" said the doctor, "are they, though? Suppose you draw a line through Capella and the three Kids until it comes to that very bright star in the east. What color's that?"

"Why, red!"  said Helen, in astonishment.

"Red is correct," said the doctor. "We have yellow ones, green ones, blue ones—"

"Blue ones!"

"Bluish, we say," smiled her companion. "That red star is called Al-deb'-a-ran, or the Bull's Eye, because it forms the eye in the constellation of Tau'-rus, the Bull. You see it is in that V-shaped figure? That is the Bull's face."

"I don't think it looks much like a bull's face," said Helen, after a moment.

"Neither do I," agreed the doctor. "All these names were made up about three thousand years ago, you see. Perhaps if we were naming the constellations, we might do it differently. Now, just a little higher up, do you see a tiny bunch of stars?"

"Yes, three, four, five tiny ones."

Dr. Lorry was silent.

"Six—seven!" cried Helen, after a moment.

"Bright eyes!" said the doctor. "I see seven, too. They are called the Ple'-ia-des, or sometimes the Seven Sisters. You'll find the Pleiades mentioned in the Bible. Now, see if you can find where before I come again."