jokes about puny Naturals who thought they could wade in and do what their betters hadn't managed …
Muko was furious. He muttered to himself that he would show them. He would solve that riddle no matter what.
The children were utterly despondent but the inexorable routine of their studies had to continue. The next class was about the cosmos and the stars and it was to be given by a teacher from another school. Sometimes this happened: that teachers went around different schools and gave lectures about their area of expertise. On this occasion they were to be taught by Mr Copernicus, and the four friends soon found themselves pleasantly distracted because he had scheduled his class to take place after dark and the lesson consisted of a walk under the night sky.
It was wonderful to step outside and look up at the starry heavens, but even more wonderful to have the stars and constellations explained and named, to be shown how to use a compass, and then to be introduced to the teacher's own telescope and have its function demonstrated. He showed them a couple of stars and planets through the telescope and explained that every heavenly body was catalogued.