Cherylann Hall, aged 9, of Meridian, Idaho for her question:

What is the meaning of Dog Days?

The dog days are the hot and sultry days of midsummer. This is the time when you tend to feel dog tired‑ all tuckered out from the head and the humidity. It is thought that Butch and Skippy are most likely to come down with the rabies in this weather. It might be called a road dog season. Some people think that these are enough reasons to call sultry midsummer the dog days.

Actually there is another reason. It comes from the distant stars and goes back for thousands of years. Stars, of course, do not shine in the daytime. But this does not mean they disappear out of the sky. They are always there. The glory of our nearby sun outshines them when it reigns in the sky.

This sun of ours outshines even_the brightest star –In the universe.  This bright star is much larger and much brighter than our sun. But it is some fifty trillion miles further away from us. It is, of coarse, Sirius, the Dog Star.

North of the equator, Sirius is a star of the winter nights. Come fall, it rises in the east as the sun sets in the west. Each night it rises a little earlier. By midwinter it is high in the sky at sundown But you cannot see the brightest of stars until the sun's rays have dipped below the west. Sirius is one of the first to switch on its lamp at twilight.

In late spring, Sirius is in the west at sundown. It is close on the heels of the setting sun. All day long it was close behind the sun We couldn’t see the Dog Star during the day because it was out dazzled. Through early summer it rises and sets a little closer to the sun each day.

Now Sirius, the sparkling Dog Star was admired by the ancient people who lived by the river Nile. They thought it had the power to make their river flood and produce good crops, After all, it is next to the sun and moon In brilliance. These people knew a lot about stars and had figured out where they were in daytime. When Sirius rose with the sun, these people thought that extra neat was poured upon the earth.

Of course this is not true. Our summer heat comes only from our sun. Sirius just happens to be rising with the sun when the sun's direct rays are falling on our part of the world. The ancients called this season the Dog Days They blamed all kinds of hot weather aches and pains on the power of the faraway star.

We still call the sultry summer season the dog days though we know that shiny Sirius has nothing to do with the weather. There are arguments as to how long the season lasts. For the season when Sirius and the sun rise together varies. Most people allow the dog day season from six to eight weeks ‑ from early July to early September. But, whatever doggy business happens in the season, you may be sure that beautiful Sirius didn't have a thing to do with it.