jquery starterkit tutorial doesn't work, syntax error in click function

jquery starterkit tutorial doesn't work, syntax error in click function

Sorry but I can't get the very first tutorial to work.   I put the custom.js in a test_jr directory in htdocs.
I also put the starterkit.html file in the same directory.  I copied the contents of jquery-1.4.4.min.js into a jquery.js file also in the same directory.   Then I did the custom.js page shown here:

<html>
 <head>
 <script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>
 <script type="text/javascript">



$(document).ready(function() {
   $("a").click(function() {
     alert("Hello world!");
   });    ******
});    


    
 </script>
 </head>
 <body>
   <a href="">Link</a>

 </body>
 </html>

I tried clicking on the http://myServer/test_jr/starterkit.html   and I get the starterkit.html page.  If I click on the "some link"   it doesn't do anything.  What am I missing?   There are syntax errors in my editor starting on the
line with the asterisks  *****     Why is there an error there?  It looks like it closes the click function? 
thanks,
jr