CHAPTER IV 

 SIRIUS 



WHEN April comes with its sweet showers and genial 

 sunshine, the winter stars hasten to hide themselves 

 in the ever-brightening west. 



But, seemingly, not so Sirius. He shows a reluctance 

 to quit the scene he has so brilliantly adorned on many 

 a freezing night. Of course, he lags in vain ; he will 

 have to go with the rest of the winter starry host 

 with Orion, with the Pleiades and the Hyades, with 

 Gemini, and with his faithful canine companion, the 

 Lesser Dog. The last-mentioned, at this season of the 

 year, always gives me the impression of being a 

 fugitive from the attacks of the formidable Hydra, 

 the Water Snake. 



Then when Sirius and his co-adorners of the winter 

 sky have been relegated to the rear of the celestial 

 stage, or have quitted it altogether, enter the stars of 

 Spring ; enter Leo, Virgo, Bootes, Corona Borealis ; 

 enter Crater and Corvus, on the Water Snake's back. 

 Enter, likewise, golden Arcturus, pale Regulus, blue- 

 white Spica stellar oases in the desert that follows 

 the Garden of the Sky. 



At nightfall, with April's opening, the Dog Star 

 strikes prismatic fire in the sou'-sou'-west. 



By ten o'clock he is near setting, and is almost level 



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