adder to see. When he came back he said that those were
windows of various sizes which the sky settlers were cutting through the
floor so they could see what was going on back home. At first there were
only a few scattering holes, but every night there were a lot more,
until it looked as if those people up there put in all their time
looking down at the place where they came from. Our folks used to listen
to see if they wouldn't call down something about how they liked it, but
nothing of that kind ever happened. Perhaps it was too far, or maybe
they had made some law about it. Anyway, all that my people ever knew
about those travelers was the windows they kept cutting, and those got
so thick, by and by, that my ancestor was worried for fear the floor
would get weak and the sky-world fall to pieces and spoil his income. So
he sent up word by some who were going that if that window-cutting
didn't stop he would take down his ladder and not let any more of their
friends come. Very likely that scared them, for though the sky floor
must have got pretty weak, it didn't come through and you see it is
there, with all the windows, that we call stars, in it yet. The ladder
built by my eighty-second great-grandfather remained in our family and
was still working up to the time the moon tipped and spilt all that was
left down here, just as I told you before. I never heard what became of
it after that.

"As for those windows, I suppose they are still in use, as those
sky-people would want to see what became of us. Those holes look pretty
small, of course, from here, being so far away, and people got to
calling them stars because they look like stars at this distance, though
most of them would be round or square, I judge, if you could see them
close. Some of them must have shutters, for sometimes there seem to be a
great many more than others, especially on a very clear night, when I
suppose those people up there have them all open. They are so thick then
that I don't wonder my ancestor grew worried about the floor. I found a
leaf, once, from one of Mr. Man's poetry books, and it said on it,

The night has a thousand eyes

and I suppose that meant the stars, but it must have been written a long
time ago, for there are a good many more than a thousand now; and
there's a verse in our family which says,

A million windows in the sky
Watch the nights and days go by.

"Which proves they have been there a long time and that they a