orlie put the questions out of her mind that afternoon. "What good does it do to ask anyone?" she thought. "No one knows."

hey spent their time just talking. Part of the time Jorlie rode on Merrick's back, but mostly she walked alongside because it was easier to talk that way.

Merrick told her about his life. He was quite athletic and bragged about his many accomplishments.

orlie talked about the many things she did not understand - and how she wished she did. And she told Merrick about the stars and planets that she looked at through her bedroom window at night.

he told about a conversation she once had with a traveling rabbit who came by her house. He had talked about an old rabbit who lived six fields to the east who knew more about space and the stars than any rabbit ever did. Jorlie wondered how one would come to know so much about space, and what it was exactly that the old rabbit knew about the stars.

errick felt that Jorlie thought too much about things. "What do the stars have to do with us?" he wondered.

ut he liked Jorlie and admired her, even if she did wonder about things that don't really matter. He told her as much in the kindest way he could when they stopped to rest in a clover patch.
"Why don't you just be happy?"

s bright as Jorlie was, she missed the point and mistook Merrick's comment for encouragement to even further wondering.

Perhaps I will," she said to Merrick. "How would you like to take a trip east one of these days?" Merrick smiled in agreement.