Henry asks his sister Mary about the sky. She tells him all about the Sun, the Planets, the Moon, Comets and Meteors, and Stars. Mary tells her brother about mythologies people believed about the earth and sky along with true scientific information.
By : Mary Proctor (1862 - 1957)
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This book has been a labor of love from the beginning to the end, and I have thoroughly enjoyed conversing with my little friends Harry and Nellie. Now that the book is finished, I leave it with regret.
It is impossible to give all the authorities for my legends of the stars. Many were told to me by my father when I was a little girl, or I found them among books in his library, which is now scattered far and wide. Others are from Grecian mythology, Japanese folk-lore, Hindoo legends, while some of the American Indian stories were found in musty volumes of the Bureau of Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution.
As for the descriptive astronomy, among my authorities are Professor C. A. Young, Professor Barnard, Agnes M. Clerke, Professor R. S. Ball, Schiaparelli, Flammarion, Professor Todd, Mr. Lowell of Flagstaff, Ariz., and my father, the late Richard A. Proctor.
With the kind permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. I have been allowed to use the following selections: "Why the Stars Twinkle," by Oliver Wendell Holmes; "The Evening Star," by Longfellow; "Lady Moon," by Lord Houghton; and "The New Moon," by Mrs. Follen. The editor of St. Nicholas has kindly given me permission to include the poems "The Four Sunbeams," by M. K. B.; "Estelle's Astronomy," by Delia Hart Stone; and "Seven Little Indian Stars," by Mrs. S. M. B. Piatt. I am indebted to the editor of Child-Study Monthly for the little poem "Is It True?" by Morgan Growth. The poem on "The Solar System" is taken from the Youth's Companion, with the kind permission of the editor. The verses about "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" are so familiar to every child that my book of Stories of Starland would seem incomplete without this poem by Eugene Field. The illustration of a Part of the Milky Way is from a photograph taken by Professor Barnard at the Lick Observatory. Mr. Percival Lowell has also very kindly allowed me to make use of his excellent illustration of the Canals of Mars, taken from Todd's "New Astronomy," published by the American Book Company.
I now submit this little book to my young readers, sincerely hoping its pages may inspire them with a renewed interest in the wonders of Starland.
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