Day 20: The penguins see a different sky in the south.

A letter came tonight from very far away, folded small and creased from its long trip. "To Pim and the little star. I live in the south, where the winter comes in the middle of the year. My grandpa says our sky is different from yours. Is that true? From a child who looks up every night and never sees your North Star." Nell read it twice. "Sil said that too," she whispered.

On the ice in the far north, Sil the white fox had told them about the far south. The penguins down there had other stars, she had said, stars the north never sees. Nell had wondered about it ever since. She tied on her red scarf without being asked. The Night Wind laughed at the window. "Yes, it is cold there too," it said. "Hold on tight. This is the longest trip of all."

The Longest Ride South

The Night Wind carried them south and south and south. They flew over dark land, then over wide oceans, then over more dark oceans. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight," Pim sang, and Nell sang it with him. Pim kept looking back over his shoulder at the North Star. It sat lower and lower in the sky as they went. Then, at last, it slipped below the edge of the world and was gone.

A Crowd of Penguins

They landed on a great white shore of snow and ice, at the far south of the world. It was night, and it was very cold. All around them stood penguins, hundreds of them, black and white, in a huddle to stay warm. Young Tup waddled up and peered at Nell's red scarf. "Waddle, slide, look up," she said, and she flopped onto her belly and slid right past Pim's nose.

Pim zoomed after her, laughing, and Nell went sliding behind them both. They slid down a long icy slope and spun around at the bottom in a heap. Tup's grandfather came waddling over, slow and stately, to see what all the noise was. "Waddle, slide, look up," he said, and he did look up, at the sky. "That is what we always say on a clear night," Tup explained. "First you play, and then you look up."

Strange Stars Overhead

Pim and Nell looked up. The sky was full of stars, but many of them were strange to Pim. There was no North Star anywhere, not even low down. Instead there was a small, bright cross of stars, standing in the dark. Not far from it were two soft, misty patches of light, glowing faintly. "I have never seen those before," Pim said. "Not from the little house, and not from the far north ice either."

"Of course not," said Tup's grandfather. "The Earth is a great round ball. When you live on the top half, you see the stars over the top half. When you live down here on the bottom half, you see the stars over the bottom half. Some stars we can only see from the south, and some you can only see from the north." Tup nodded hard. "Our little cross is ours," she said proudly.

The Zebra's Saying Set Right

Nell remembered the wide grassland and the zebra with the swishing tail. "A zebra told us that everyone in the world sees the same stars," she said. Tup's grandfather tipped his head and thought about it. "Your zebra was partly right," he said kindly. "Many stars can be seen from both halves of the world. But not all of them. People in the north see some stars that we never see, and we see some stars that they never see."

"Then the child who wrote to us sees stars we have never seen," said Pim slowly, "and we see the North Star, which the child never sees." He zoomed up in a happy spiral. Nell floated beside him and looked up at the little cross. Somewhere in this enormous sky, or in the sky of the north, her own place was waiting. It was a light left on in a window of the sky, and she was going to find it.

Tup's Gift of a Feather

Tup shook herself, and a tiny gray feather floated loose from her chest. It was soft and fluffy, left over from when she was a chick. She picked it up in her beak and held it out to Nell. "To keep you warm on the way home," she said. Nell tucked the feather into her red scarf, and it tickled. "I will keep it always," she said. "Waddle, slide, look up," said Tup, and she slid away one last time.

The Night Wind came whirling over the ice, scattering snow. "Home, little ones," it said. "The little house is far, but I am fast." Pim and Nell waved to all the penguins, and the penguins flapped their flippers back. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight," Pim sang as they rose. On the way north, the Night Wind spoke again. "Another night, I will take you somewhere high, dry and very dark," it said.

At last Grandma Ada's lamp came into view, shining in the window of the little house. The Night Wind set them gently on the sill. Pim looked up, and there was the North Star again, back in its place. Nell crept into her teacup, still holding the gray penguin feather. She laid it softly beside the striped pebble and the red scarf. "The lamp is on. The door is near. And all is well here," Pim whispered.

Stars From Both Halves of the World

Here are three things to watch for tonight, wherever in the world you are. Watch for one star from your window, and think of a child far away who may never see that star. Watch for a soft, small thing that keeps you warm, a blanket, a sock or a toy. And watch for the sky over your own home, the only sky that is exactly yours tonight. Then close your eyes, slowly, slowly, and sleep.

Day 21: The stars wear many colors on a dark night.

"Hold on to your feather, Nell!" Pim called. The Night Wind had set them down on a wide plain, high up and far from everything. The ground was dry and stony. A cold breeze ran over the plain and tugged at Pim's wings and at Nell's little light. Then it tugged the small penguin feather right out of Nell's points.

The feather spun up into the dark, and Pim zoomed after it. But the feather was gone, far away over the stones. "That was my present from the penguins," said Nell in a small voice. Pim landed beside her and folded his wings. "A feather can fly away, but the penguins are still your friends," he said. Nell nodded slowly, and then she looked up and forgot to be sad.

The Dry Plain Sky

The sky over the plain was very dark and very full. The air up here was thin and dry, with no mist and no clouds at all. There were no towns nearby and no bright lamps, so the stars came out in thousands. "Look, Pim," whispered Nell. "They are not all the same color." Nell was right. Some stars were blue-white and some were yellow, and a few were orange. One low star near the ground glowed a soft red.

"Blue-white, gold, orange, red," said Pim, and he zipped from rock to rock to see better. "Blue-white, gold, orange, red!" He spun in a circle. "I always thought that stars were just white." Nell's own pale white light bobbed up and down. "Which color am I?" she asked. "Does a color mean something about a star?" Pim stopped spinning, because he did not know. "Let's find someone who knows," he said.

Across the plain, a little fire was burning by a stone hut. Lina sat beside it with her grandfather, and a herd of woolly animals slept in a pen nearby. The grandfather wore a long gray scarf, and Lina wore a red shawl with blue stripes. "A firefly!" said Lina. "And who is that small bright one beside him?" Pim flew closer to the fire. "This is Nell," he said. "She is a little star, and she is trying to find her way home."

The Grandfather's Embers

Lina's grandfather did not seem surprised at all. "Up here on the plain, we watch the stars every night," he said. "What did you want to ask them about?" Nell floated up beside the flames. "Why are the stars so many different colors?" she asked. The grandfather smiled and pointed into the fire.

"Look at the deep red coals at the edge of the fire," he said. "They are the coolest part of it. Now look in the middle, where it is yellow and almost white. That is the hottest part. Stars are giant suns, very far away." He looked up. "Their colors tell us how hot they are. Blue-white stars are the hottest of all, and yellow ones are in the middle. Orange and red stars are the cooler ones."

"Our own sun is a star too," said Lina. "It is a yellow-white one, in the middle." Pim looked up. "Blue-white, gold, orange, red," he said slowly. "Hottest, then hot, then cooler, then coolest. So the blue one is not cold at all?" The grandfather laughed a deep, warm laugh. "Not at all," he said. "The blue one is the hottest, and the red one is the coolest."

Nell looked down at her own pale white glow. "Then I am in between," she said. "I am not the hottest and not the coolest." Lina clapped her hands and said it was just right for a little star. Nell's light gave a happy flicker, and Pim flickered back at her. For a while the four of them sat by the fire and named the colors overhead. Blue-white, gold, orange, red.

The Red Wool Thread

Soon the Night Wind came whistling over the stones. "Time to go," it said. Lina pulled one loose red thread from her shawl and tied it in a small bow. She held it out to Nell. "This is for the cool red stars," she said, "and to make up for your feather." Nell held the thread close and thanked her. Pim wrapped the other end around his leg, so the wind could not take this present too.

The Night Wind lifted them up, and they waved to Lina and her grandfather until the fire was a tiny orange spot. The plain grew small and dark below them. Pim beat his wings in a slow, even way and began to sing. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight." Nell sang it back to him while the red thread fluttered between them. Above them the colored stars shone on, blue-white and gold and orange and red.

Far ahead, a small yellow light was waiting in the dark. It was Grandma Ada's lamp in the window of the little house. Grandma Ada left it on every night, so anyone out in the dark could find the way back. "Slow wings, soft light. The lamp is on tonight," Pim sang again, more quietly now. The Night Wind set them down on the sill. Inside, June was asleep in her chair.

Pim untied the red thread from his leg, and Nell helped him tie it to the handle of the teacup in a little bow. June stirred and opened one eye. "You're back," she mumbled. "What is that red thread on the teacup?" "It is a present from far away," said Nell softly. June smiled and closed her eye again. Pim looked at the lamp, at the bow and at Nell's white glow. "The lamp is on. The door is near. And all is well here," he whispered.

Nell curled up in her teacup bed on the sill, and Pim settled on the green leaf beside her. Outside, the stars shone on in all their colors, even when nobody was there to name them. Blue-white, and gold. Orange, and red. The little red bow hung still on the teacup, and the lamp glowed on in the window, warm and yellow. Slowly, slowly, the little house fell asleep.