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?"