The Comet 1897 The Comet Vol I Issue 5 | Page 2

2 THE COMET : MAY , 1898 .

tant victory in the Sudan . Atbara was taken by storm , 2000 ' Of the dervishes were killed and 4000 were taken prisoners .

' I ' he finest of Uncle Sam ' s war ships are the following : Philadelpbia , Raleigh , Iowa , Holland , Oregon , Baltimore , Brooklyn , Boston , . Miantomah , Cushing , New York , Indiana , Katahdin and Marblehead .

The principal commanders in the army and navy are the following : Rohrer , Milez , Craig , Richborn , Me- Cullom , McNaire , Walker , Norton , Howell , Baker , Pendleton , Dewey , Sicard , Roosevelt and Sampson .

" VENGEANCE · IS MINE ; I WILL REPAY ." ByH . D . W .

The sun , sinking behind the great mountain peak , cast its last slanting rays down upon tile little Alpine village , resting , as it were , upon a jetting ledge of rock half way up the mountain . It cast its light upon the face of an old man-a shepherd-leading his flocks back to his home in the valley . His was an honest race , full o ' f peace and contentment , though it was now somewhat shadowed by a cloud .

" Yes ," he was saying to himself , I shall miss dear Htt . le Marie ; but Hans , Hans is a dear boy-I could give her to none worthier ; and-sand I shan ' t need her much longer myself . How happy . they are together ! The naughty children-they should come on home ; it is growing dark ; but , of course , Marie must wait for Hans . Ah , ah , I was once young myself ," and the old man brushed away a tiny drop , thinking of one so like Marie , who had walked beside him down this very mountain many years ago ,

********* The fading light cast its radiance upon

another face . In the bright redness o [ the sunlight , and the fierce passion so strongly pictured there , it seemed , not the face of a man , but the face of a demon = -bttter. exulting .

At last , he thought too himself , he would have revenge : for Hans tonk a path down the mountain which the other shepherds never took : it was the nearest way home .

Frederick LeBant and Hans had long been bitter rivals ; for , not strange to ' say , both loved the old shepherd ' s daughter , Marie , and Hans was the successful rival . In vain , Frederick sought , for months , some way to win the favor of his adored . When he had failed , he gave himself to bitterest despondency , and was almost ready to throw himself from a cliff . But , at last , he had devised a plan to ensnare his enemy . It was his one chance . Not far from the pathway , down which Hans nearly always came , was a cliff so sudden , so steep and so deceptive that one walking near could easily go over . To cover t . he real path and to clear an- ' Other , leading to the very verge of the cliff , was tne work of but a few hours , and , when he had finished , Frederick crouched behind a great rock , and waited for his foe . He had planned it all out . Hans would pay little attention to the way , would walk over the cliff . He would be dashed to pieces on the rocks below , and the murderer could easily cover the new path , uncover the old . Those who found the mangled body in the valley would suspect nothing . Marie would mourn awhile , and then-

" Oh Hans , Hans ," he cried exultingly , clenching his hands , while a fiendish smile lit up his dark fase , " you little know what a game I ' ll have of it ."

Soon he heard steps coming down the mountain . He clenched his hands still more tightly , and his heart ' beat so frantically that he could almost hear its pulsations . His enemy-the one he had hated so long , had hated with all his heart , ye-s , for whose injury he would give anything , everything-e-was near .

He would take ' Onepeep , ' One happy , exulting look .

Oh , heaven ! What figure is that , which comes trippin . g so lightly along the fatal pathway ?

" Stop l Stop ! Marie , for the Virgin ' s sake , stop !"

* * * * * * * * *

The setting sun is setting once more

upon the mountain . Far , far up , at a dizzy height from the little village , it shines upon the white walls of a little monastery , and casts its beams through the panesof a tiny iron-barred window . Within , an ' Old man , with wild eyes and long dis-heveled hair , paces up and down the narrow stone floor . He paces taster and faster , and wrings . hlahands and tears his beard . And now and then the fervent monks at mass are startled by a heart rending cry : " Stop ! Stop ! Marie , for the Vlrgln ' s sake , stop !"

SAYINGS OF FAMOUS MEN ABOUT EnUCATION .

Swift said that the reason a certaln university was a learned place was , that most persons took some learning there , and few ' brought any away with them , so it accumulated .

Dr . F ' ran ' klln said : " When I see a house well furnished with books , then I see welI informed and Intelligent children ; but if there are no books , then the children are ignorant ."

" The desire to seem learned , prevents many from becoming such ."

It is never too late to learn . Socra tes , Cato , Plutarch , Spelman , Johnson and Dryden were past sixty when they undertook their best works .

" By education , men become easy to lead , but difficult to drive , and easy to govern , but impossible to enslave ."

" ' Tis education forms the common mind ;

Just as the twig is ' bent , the tree ' s inclined ."

" Whatever expands the affections , or enlarges the sphere of our syrnpathies--whatever makes us feel our relation to the universe ' and all that it inherits ,' to tlme -and eternity , to the great and beneficent course of all , must unquestionably refine ' Our nature and elevate us in the scale of learning ."

" Were it not better for a man in a fair room to set up one grea t light , or branching candlestick of lights , than to go about with a rushlight into every dark corner ?"

HOW FOUR GIRLS STUDY LATIN .

You hav-e all heard of how two . girls study History 0.1 ' French , ' but I ' ll tell you how four girls study Latin " beats " them all . How amusing are little snatches of their conversation not intended Ior our ears .

First- " Now _ we must all be good , arrd get it every bit , ' cause , -if we don ' t know ' Our lesson , she ' s just going to give us Hail Columbia ." Second-Well , we will . N ' Ow who ' s going to do , the first section ?" ' I ' hird- " I ' ll do that ; I can do it just scrumptious ." Pourth + v ' Begin .' T ' hird = -Well, he had covered about half the space- " First- " Why , I translated i ' t when about half the time had passed ." Fourbh-e-t ' Well , what ' s the dif ., I ' d like to know ?"