The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-01-22
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IT took more than the threat Of | Doomsday to scare Mrs. Cup till. If the world was coming to an end, she guessed this was as good e time as any, she said. As for her, she wasn't going to sit around until May 18 with her hands folded.
 Julia, too, showed real bravado She was interested in comets, and she hoped this one would come close enough so that she could get a good look. she said. She was going to take all the bottles she could find and fill them with gases when we passed through the tail. This was ridicu- lous, Sue confided to me. Being in the Academy, she naturally thought she knew all there was to know about science. Those gases are purely hydrolic." she said. leaving me mystified, but impressed.
 Still I didn't like the idea of gas My father sometimes gave it in his office. It had a sicxening smell. I had seen patients who had taken it resting upon his sofa. I knew how careful he was to turn 1t of at just the right instant. You couldn't turn. of comets tail
 At night the light from the street lamp shone in round and bright through the porthole. I had hard time sleeping
 My mother began to complain that looked pindling. I'm going to mix you up some sulphur and mo- lasses," she said. Tt helped me as a girl, for all your father says"
 There was no use in protesting. Sulphur and molasses had always been revolting to me. But this year it seemed to have a new taste. A taste like gas.
 A TENDANCE at church had in- IA creased noticeabaly. The Blais- dells and the Haskells, who had cherished & feud for generations, ended it by talking over the back fence. Two of my fathers least res- ponsible creditors suggested mak- ing a settlement.
 In his zeal to save others, Lem Gott had begun to paint warnings in appropriate and conspicuous places. IS YOUR HOUSE FOUND ED UPON A ROCK? he printed in red across one of the lodges along the shore. YOU ARE MAKING YOUR LAST RUN stared out at you from the foul fence at the ball ground. The comet would hit the earth, he told all who would listen. May IS wcsld be the last day any of us would live.
 On the evening of the ninth a fog rolled in. heavy fog that blot ted out the sky. There would be no use in getting up before sunrise, people agreed. To some 1t was a dis- appointment. To me it was real relief.
 The fog hung on after that, burn ing of every day before noon.
 On the 18th we had our first word from Cousin Victoria. She knew we were sorry for the way we had treated her, she said, and she was willing to accept our apology. She was dsitraught abou the royal fam fly. Then followed a quotation that | Sue was proud to recognize as com- ing from Julius Caesar.
 When beggars die, there are
 no comets seen;
 The heavens themselves blaze
 forth the death of kings.
 A postscript added: This may be | the last letter you will ever have from me" Clearly, she felt herself | too. special target.
 "I'll certainly be thankful when | the 18th is over," my mother sigh- ed Such as to-do over nothing"
 On the l7th the fog lifted, and some claimed to have seen the comet then, in broad daylight. though no two, 1t seemed, had seen 1t in the same place. At night It would be bigger, brighter.
 Boshy's agitation grew. His sniffs quickened in tempo. What kin we do if the comet aims square at us2" he asked Mir. Tapley.
 We might ban it," MT. Tapley told him. The way we did automo' biles."
 On the morning of the 18th my mother insisted on my taking an | extra spoonful of sulphur and mos lasses. I'm going to have your father give you a thorough going over." she said, looking worried. "ARd beginning tonight you 60 to bed at q"
 She had forgottenl
 Not tonight. Mama. Everyone IS going to the hill tonight"
 (Te Be COnfinueal