Alexander] ORION, THE MIGHTY HUNTER 379 



5. The fairy stories of the ordinary child primer are for the 

 study of the mature student. 



6. The true story should precede the myth. 



7. The writers of first grade readers have the preconceived idea 

 that the unreal is a necessary preparation for literature. This 

 inherited custom hinders the writers from proceeding in a natural 

 way and so they distort the mind of the child for months with the 

 literary method of the savage. Should we keep the child on all 

 fours to be sure that he passes through that stage? Education 

 should help the child pass through these stages and is not a device 

 to keep him in them. 



Orion, The Mighty Hunter 



W. P. Alexander 

 Instructor in Apiculture in Cornell University 



"Begirt with many a blazing star 

 Stood the great giant Algebar, 

 Orion, hunter of the beast! 

 His sword gleaming by his side 

 And on his arm the lion's hide 

 Scattered across the midnight air 

 The golden radiance of its hair." 



Longfellow, when he wrote the above quoted 

 verse which is from his beautiful poem "The 

 Occulation of Orion" felt impelled to make an 

 q. , apology for he says elsewhere, speaking of its 



large stars in a line composition: "Astronomically, this title is 



forming the belt, incorrect. But mv observation is made from 



the curved line of , 



smaller stars below the hill of song and not from that science; and 



forming the sword, ^ t trust be found sufficientlv accurate for 



Betelgeuse above, ,,".,. 



Rigel below at the the purpose. One could hardly wish for a finer 



n S ht - glimpse of the mighty hunter that we are about 



to discuss, than Longfellow has given us in his picturesque lines, 



unless perhaps it be an actual look at him, alone in his celestial 



magnificance on some crisp and frosty winter's night. 



Orion is the unsurpassed master of our brilliant heavens in the 



cold months when all the visible constellations vie with one another 



in lavish scintillating. His belt is better known than any other 



