River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1873-08-19

The beautiful blue gentian and sweet.
willow were to be found up at Skagen ;
the glossy Christhorn over Mt Silke.
borg. The towns were signified by
emblems. Here was st. Canute with
the dragon, signifying Odense; Absalor
with bishops staff signifying Soro,
and little vessel with oars (Aarer)
signitied Aarhus. From the school
masters garden one could learn quite
well the geography of Denmark, but OF
course he must be instructed by the
schoolmaster, which 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.
The comet is a good vine year." he
said "water may be mixed with it
without being perceptible. Wine
dealers like comet years"
During fourteen days and nights the
sky was clouded, and the comet oh.
scured; but IL was there. The old
schoolmaster was sitting in his cham
Der close by the school.room. The
Bornholm clock, which had belonged
70 his childhood's home, stood in the
corner, the leaden weights neither
rising nor falling, the pendulum
motionless the little cuckoo, which
had formerly come forward cuckooing
each hour, remained back in its place
silent all was still there, the clock
had ceased to go. But the old piano.
which had also pertained to the home
of his childhood, still possessed life /;
the strings could resound, some
what hoarsely, the melodies of whole
human life; and thereby the old man
kept in mind SO much, both pleasant
and sad, in the long row of intervening
years, since when as child he had
gazed upon the comet, until now il was
again here. He remembered what his
mother had said about the shavings in
the light; he remembered the beauti-
ful soap bubbles, each donating for
him year, he had said. How bright,
how full of colors, only the bright and
Joyous he saw therein; child play with
youthful delight: 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 h 4,
heard in the tones of the piano. melo
dies of the past Retrospection hub
bles in all the color tints of memory.
He heard his grandmother's 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 pa'h,
Who is now 50 little,
Aud 30 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 war
march, now came psalm melody, now
a merry song, bubble after bubble, as
when little boy he blew them from
soap water.
His eyes We're fixed upon the window ;
out there upon the sky cloud glided
away, and he saw IN the transparent
air comet, its glittering nucleus, ITS
luminous tail.
1t seemed like yesterday evening
when he saw it before, yet whole ricl
human life lay between that time and
the present. Then he was child, and
looked through the bubbles forward y
now the bubbles showed in the back
ward gaze. He felt the child mind, the
child faith his eyes shone, his hand
fell upon the keys; it sounded as if a
string had broken.
Oh, come and see shouted the
neighbor "the comet is here. The
sky is so beautifully clear Come out
and have good viewl"
The old school-master did not an
swer. He had gone Tor good view,
his soul was away on a greater orbit
than that through which flies the
comet, and now again was gazed upon
from palace and from cot. from the
crowd upon the street and the lonely
wanderer upon the pathless heath.
His soul was looked upon by God and
the dear ones gone before, those for
whom it had longed. -Hdns Christian
1ndorseH