The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1873-08-08

the school-master's garden one could
learn quite well the geography of Den
mark, but of course he must be in
structed by the school-master, who was
so agreeable.
The comet was expected, and con-
corning it he told what people of old
days, when it was last here, had said.
1.-THE comet is good wine year." he
said; "water may be mixed with it
without being perceptible. Wine deal
ers like comet years.
puring fourteen days and nights the
sky was clouded, and the comet OBJ
scured; but it was there. The old
school-master was sitting in his cham
Der close by the school-room. The
Bornholm clock, which had belonged
to his childhood's home, stood III the
corner, the leaden weights neither rising
nor falling, the pendulum motionless !;
the little cuckoo, which had formerly
come forward cuckooing each hour, re-
manned back in its place silent all was
still there the clock had ceased to 60.
But the old piano, which had also per-
tanned to the home of his childhood, still
possessed life the strings could re-
sound, although somewhat hoarsely, the
melodies of whole human life and
thereby the old man kept in mind so
much, both pleasant and sad, III the
long row of intervening years, since
when as a child he had gazed on the
comet, until now it was again here. He
remembered what his mother had said
about the shaving in the light ; he re-
membered the beautiful soap bubbles,
each denoting for him year, he had
said. How bright, how full of colors,
only the bright and joyous he saw there
in; child play with youthful de-
light the whole wide world seemed to
open for him in the sunshine, and out
into it he was to go Future bubbles !!
AS an old man he heard i'll the tones of
the piano melodies of the past : Re-
trospection bubbles in all the color
tints of memory. He heard his grand
mothers knitting song:
"surely no Amazonian
The first stocking knitted"
Then resounded the ditty, sung to him
in childhood by the old servant:
"Many danger for him,
Along the life path,
Who now is so little,
And SO little knowledge hath"
Now he heard the melodies of his first
festal occasion {; now soft, pathetic
tunes brought tears to the old mans
eyes now came bursting forth a war
mar march, now came a psalm melody,
now a merry song, bubble after bubble,
as when little boy he blew them from
soap-water.
His eyes were fixed upon the window
out there upon the sky cloud glided
away, and he saw in the transparent air
a comet, its glittering nucleus, its lu-
minous trail.
1t seemed like yesterday evening when
he saw it before, yet a whole rich human
| life lay between that time and the pres
ent. Then he was child, and looked
through the bubbles " forward :" now
the bubbles showed in the backward
gaze. He felt the child mind, the child
faith his eyes shone, his hands fell
upon the keys; it sounded as if string
had broken.
"Oh, come and see," shouted the
neighbor 1.-THE comet is here. The
sky is so beautifully clear! Come out
and have good view"
The old school-master did not answer
He had gone for good view, his sou,
was away on greater orbit than thai
through which flies the comet, and now
again was gazed upon from palace ant
from cot, from the crowd upon the
street and the lonely wanderer upon tn,
painless heath. His soul was looked
upon by God and the dear ones gon,
before, those for whom it had longed. =
Hans Christian andersen.