Day 18: The stars are giant suns very far away.

Someone small sent a question tonight, from a bed under a slanted roof. "Pim, the stars look so tiny. Are they really tiny, or do they only look that way? From a child who counted seven stars through the skylight and then lost count." Nell read the question over Pim's shoulder. "I have heard so many answers," she said. "Campfires, holes in a blanket, too many to count. Which answer is the true one?"

The Night Wind came puffing at the window with a warm smell on its breath. "I keep my promises," it said. "Tonight we go somewhere warm that smells of fresh bread." Nell laughed and Pim did a happy somersault. They climbed onto the wind, and it swept them up over the garden gate. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight," Pim sang, and the little house grew small behind them.

They flew down into a sleepy village with crooked streets and dark windows. Only one window was bright, low down, near the end of a lane. Warm golden light spilled out from it onto the cobbles, along with the most wonderful smell. Pim and Nell peeked in. A big man with flour on his arms was working at a long wooden table. Behind him, a great brick oven glowed orange and red.

Tomas worked all night at his oven, so that the village would have bread in the morning. He was pushing and folding a huge lump of dough. "Knead and fold, warm and gold," he sang to himself. Then he saw Pim and Nell at the window and waved them in with a floury hand. "Come in out of the dark, little lights," he said. "There is room by the oven."

The Baker by the Brick Oven

Pim zoomed in and landed on a sack of flour, and a little white puff flew up. Nell sat on the edge of a mixing bowl. Nell asked Tomas the child's question, and she told him all the answers they had heard. A fox had said the stars were faraway campfires. A hare had said they were holes in a dark blanket. And the turtles had tried to count every one of them. Tomas listened and kept on kneading.

"Those are good stories," Tomas said. "People have told them for a long, long time. But I will tell you what people who study the sky have found out. Every star you see is a sun. Each one is a great, huge, blazing ball of light, the same kind of thing as our own sun. Many of them are even bigger than our sun." Pim nearly fell off the flour sack. "Bigger than the sun?" he cried.

"Then why do they look so small?" asked Nell. Tomas pointed out of the window, down the long dark lane. Far away, at the very end, there was one tiny point of light. "That is the lantern over the milk barn," said Tomas. "It is a big lantern, and up close it is very bright. But it is far away, so it looks very small from here." He opened the oven door, and the heat and light poured out.

"Our sun is a star that is close to us," said Tomas. "So it looks big and bright, and it fills the whole day with light. All the other stars are suns too, but they are very, very far away. They are so far that they look tiny, only little points of light in the night." Pim flew to the window and looked out at the faraway lantern. Then he looked up at the stars. "Knead and fold, warm and gold," Tomas sang.

"And can anyone count them all?" asked Nell. Tomas laughed and shook the flour off his hands. "There are more stars than anyone could count in a whole lifetime," he said. "Even the clever turtles would run out of nights." Nell thought about her own place, out among all those faraway suns. Somewhere up there, a place was waiting for her, with a light left on in a window of the sky.

Tomas pulled a tray of little rolls out of the oven. He broke one open and gave Pim and Nell a warm crumb each. Then his wife came down the stairs in her nightgown, carrying a tiny red scarf she had knitted from leftover wool. "For the little star," she said. "Your friend the wind says you are going somewhere very cold." Nell wound the red scarf around herself, and it fit just right.

The Night Wind blew in through the open door and stirred the flour into little clouds. "Home now, before the village wakes," it said. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight," Pim sang, and they sailed out over the rooftops. Behind them, the bakery window glowed warm and gold. Ahead of them, far away, Grandma Ada's lamp was shining in the window of the little house. "Knead and fold, warm and gold," Nell whispered.

They landed on the sill as the sky was still dark. Nell climbed into her teacup, still wearing her red scarf. Pim settled on the green leaf, and he still smelled of fresh bread. Grandma Ada's lamp was on, left on for them, the way it always was. "The lamp is on. The door is near. And all is well here," Pim said. Above the little house, all the faraway suns were shining.

Faraway Suns for Your Window

Here are three things to watch for tonight, before you fall asleep. Watch for a light that is far away, a street lamp or a window down the road, and see how small it looks. Watch for a light that is close to you, and see how big and bright it seems. And watch for one star, and remember that it is a sun, huge and bright and very, very far away. Then close your eyes and sleep, warm and safe.

Part 4: What the Sky Shows Us

Pim and Nell travel to the coldest, darkest and highest places, where the sky is wide and clear. There the sky shows them its still star, its other stars and its many colors. Each night ends, the same as always, at the little house with the lamp left on.

Day 19: One star in the north stays nearly still.

"Who goes there, out on my ice, wearing a red scarf?" called a small, sharp voice. Pim and Nell had just landed on a wide, flat sheet of snow and ice. It was very cold, and it was very dark. Nell pulled the red scarf from the bakery tighter around herself. The baker's wife had been right, because this place was colder than anywhere they had ever been. Pim's breath made tiny puffs of mist.

A white fox trotted out from behind a ridge of ice. She had a thick white coat and a bushy tail, and her eyes shone in Pim's light. "My name is Sil," she said. "This is the far north, where the ice goes on and on." Pim zoomed around her twice to keep warm. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight," he sang. Sil laughed and flicked her tail at him.

The Fox on the Far North Ice

Above them, the sky was enormous and black and full of stars. Nell looked up and turned slowly in a circle. "So many," she said. "And they are all moving, aren't they? Rosa's father said the Earth turns, so the stars seem to cross the sky." Sil nodded. "They do move," she said, "all but one of them. Look up, almost straight over our heads. Do you see that star?"

Pim looked where Sil's nose was pointing. High above them, nearly overhead, shone one steady star. It was not the biggest or the brightest star in the sky. But it was right there in the north, alone, with no other bright stars crowded close to it. "That is the North Star," said Sil. "It stays nearly still. Still star, stay. That is what my mother used to say to it."

A Mark on the Ice Ridge

"Let us test it," said Pim. He flew to the top of the ice ridge. The North Star was shining right above the very tip of the ridge's highest point. On one side of it, a little lower down, Pim picked a second star to remember. "Now we wait," he said. So they waited. Sil curled up with her tail over her nose. Nell snuggled into her red scarf, and Pim zipped back and forth to stay warm.

Waiting was cold, so Sil jumped up and challenged Pim to a race. They dashed across the ice together, the fox running and sliding and the firefly zooming low over the snow. Nell bounced along behind them and slid all the way down a slope of smooth ice, spinning, with her red scarf flying out behind her. Sil won the race, but Pim said it was only because she had four legs. They all laughed until their breath made clouds.

After a long time, Pim flew up to the ridge again. The North Star was still right above the very same point. It had hardly moved at all. But the second star had moved a long way. It had slid along a curve, part of the way around the North Star, slowly. "Still star, stay," said Pim, and he spun with delight. "It stayed! All the other stars turned around it, but it stayed!"

Sil stretched and yawned. "The whole sky seems to turn around the North Star," she said. "The Earth turns, and the North Star sits nearly above the top of the Earth. So it hardly moves, and all the others wheel around it all night long." Nell looked from star to star. Then she looked back at the North Star, steady and patient in the north, a light left on in the window of the sky.

Sil's Lamp in the North

"That star is my lamp," Sil said softly. "When I go hunting far across the ice, I look for it. I always know where north is, and I can always find my way home to my den." Pim thought of Grandma Ada's lamp in the window of the little house. It stayed in one place too, waiting, so that he could always find his way back. "Still star, stay," he whispered to it.

"Can everyone see the North Star?" asked Nell. Sil shook her head. "Not everyone," she said. "The farther south you go, the lower it sits in the sky. In the far south, it is gone completely, below the edge of the world. The Night Wind told me so, and the Night Wind has been everywhere. The penguins down there have other stars, stars we never see up here." Nell's eyes grew wide. "Other stars?" she said. Sil only grinned.

Then the Night Wind came sweeping low over the ice and lifted a little cloud of sparkling snow. "Home now, little ones," it said. "You are cold enough for one night." Sil waved her bushy tail. "Come back and see my star again," she called. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight," Pim sang, and the wind carried them away, south and south, over the dark sea and the sleeping land.

The Lamp Waiting Below the North Star

At the little house, Grandma Ada's lamp was still shining in the window. Pim saw it from far away and flashed his pattern at it, two short and one long. The Night Wind set them down on the sill. Nell climbed into her teacup and took off her red scarf. She folded it neatly beside June's paper and the striped pebble. "The lamp is on. The door is near. And all is well here," Pim said.

Through the window glass, Nell found the North Star again. Here it was much lower down in the sky than on the ice. But it was there, steady and quiet, while the other stars slowly turned around it. "Still star, stay," Nell murmured, and her light grew soft and dim. Pim curled up on the green leaf, warm at last. The lamp glowed. The house was still. And the two friends slept.