re really
windows, and useful, and not mere ornaments, though they are certainly
very pretty to look at, especially on a night like this and in such good
company."

Then Mr. 'Possum said that he thought Mr. Rabbit's story was a very good
one and explained the stars fully as well, in some ways, as Mr. 'Coon's
story, though it was less exciting. He said he was sorry there was no
story in his family to tell what the stars were, and asked Mr. Crow if
there was anything of the kind in his family.

Mr. Crow said that there was a story, but that it wasn't exactly in his
_family_--it was in _him_. Both Mr. 'Coon's and Mr. Rabbit's
stories had been very good, he said, and no doubt true enough as far as
they went, but that his story went farther, a good deal farther,
especially in the direction of personal experience, even than Mr.
'Coon's. It had all been quite sad at the time, and he had never told it
before to any one, but if they cared to hear it he would tell it now.

Then the 'Coon and the 'Possum and Mr. Jack Rabbit said they would be
glad to hear a story from Mr. Crow, especially to-night; and Mr. Crow
said he must think a little to get the beginning straight, which he did,
and was ready presently to start.

MR. CROW'S STAR STORY

MR. CROW GIVES HIS ACCOUNT OF
HOW THE STARS WERE MADE

This is the story that Mr. Crow told on the night that he and Mr. 'Coon
and Jack Rabbit and Mr. 'Possum sat on the edge of the world and hung
their feet over the Big Nowhere and looked at the stars.

"Well," said Mr. Crow, "I can tell you something about the stars that
may surprise you. I made the stars myself--not all of them, of course,
but a good many of them. No doubt a number of them were made in the way
Jack Rabbit has explained, and others in the way that Mr. 'Coon saw
himself, and told us about, but most of the bright stars, and where
there are a number together, I can account for, because I made them
myself, as I said--though I did not enjoy it. They came out of my
head--that is, they were knocked out--not all at once, but at different
times. I did not make them alone--I had help--my wife helped me; also my
mother-in-law, who was visiting us. It was this way:

"I was quite young when I married and I did not pick out the right
person for a peaceful home. Minerva, which was her name, had never been
brought up to do anything but go about with her mother and get up
meetings on one thing and another and talk to them