The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-05-23
Copyright, 1909, by Benj. B. Hampton

K@ Wilder spoke. What time is it?' yHyEV The drowsiness was slipping from ~ her voice. She raised her head from
 her pillow, and looked in amazement
 at the unhollowed smoothness of the other cushion. Her husband was not there. He had not been there at all. Surely she re membered waking to a sleepy good night to him? No, that the evening be- fore. She was now thoroughly reused.
 She was sending surprised glances by the light of dawn around her simply furnished room, when her husband walked in. Her first breath of relief ended abruptly when she saw his face.
 "Why,. Roger!" she cried sWhat in the world is the matter?'
 He came up to the bed and sat on the edge of it, taking both her work-toughened little hands in his, and pressing them fervently. The unused caress tinged her cheeks with girlish color.
 "Can you be brave, dear?" he asked her.
 She was now thoroughly frightened.
 Roger" she cried sharply, "what has hap pened? Where have you been%
 He did not answer her first question.
 "In the observatory" he replied.
 Mrs Wilder pulled her hands away. He had probably broken another of the observa- tory instruments and would insist on replacing it at his own expense, their expense. It was too provoking. And Alma had been promised a store-made jacket. She looked ruefully at her fingers, once trim and shapely. It Roger would only be a little more careful! But he was speaking, and a word suddenly re- called her. "A comet"
 The professor nodded, repressed excitement burning in his eyes.
 "It $ great discovery, Miriam, the greatest astronomical discovery of the century was searching for another of Jupiter's moons when I discovered it-the comet, mean. thought it was Zendt's when saw it first over week ago. You remember Zendt's, surely in my book on comets and their habits? Last night I saw that it was apparently way out of its course; I've been all night fguring-it's stray comet' His voice was shaking with citement.
 Mrs Wilder sat up. "It's going to run into usr' she cried. "Oh see it in your face" ''The 1ayman would speak of it that way" answered her husband as though speaking to a small child. "An astronomers wife should be iittle more technical; but that's inmate rial now"
 His wife gave him his head, as it were Long years of companionship had taught her that conversational prodding was worse than use less.
 "Ths. comet" explained the Professor, "is moving in this direction" His finger described parabolic curve on her pillow. "On Decem- d. .& 1o, 41, in space'' He marked a cross with his pencil "We are moving apparently away from it, but we will be on our return trip by then, and on December the first, at three a.m., we will be- "Where will we be?' cried Mrs. Wilder, with rising excitement.
 The Professor pointed gravely to the cross They stared at each other. Mrs. Wilder fell back. "The world is coming to an end" she exclaimed.
 "If you will persist in employing those childish phrases, A1ma," began her husband when the reality of their doom returned to him. But his wife had not heard him. She was trying to grasp the difficult thought of an initiation. Death-she could comprehend that, the thought of her end with the world swinging on in space as tough she had never been or never had ended But to have the earth swept out as a sum off the children's slate-she could not picture it. She reused herself to see how her husband was meeting it. His expression was odd mixture of pride and consternation.
 How is it going to affect you?' she asked. And then, when he did not seem to understand her: How are you going to live?"
 "Why, I'll wind up my affairs so that the children" he broke off abruptly
 That's just what mean. There won't be any children. There won't be anything. It will be different from all we've ever thought of We have no plan for it, and there will be eight months and eighteen, no, nineteen days of waiting. How you going to spend them? What will you do with your life?'