Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/23

6 said, "Is it some kind of a fairy book, Grandpapa?"

"No, dear," he said smiling, "This is an old Astronomy. Those queer pictures represent the signs of the Zodiac."

"Z-o-d-i-a-c?" repeated Ethelind, her small face all drawn up in lines of perplexity, "What is Zodiac, Grandpapa?"

Grandpapa laughed. "It would take a long time to explain the Zodiac," he said; "we should have to go back thousands of years to people who lived in very far-away countries,—to the wise men of Chaldea and Assyria, and to the Hindus; it would not interest you, my darling."

"But I want to know what the pictures mean," said the little girl. "Here's a lion,—an awfully fierce lion; and there's a horse,—no, it's not a horse,—yes, it is; and it is shooting an arrow! And there's some horrid kind of an animal with sharp claws,—and here are two dear little babies, just exactly alike; and oh! there's a