TOTO and his companions walked homeward in high spirits. The air was
crisp and tingling; the snow crackled merrily beneath their feet; and
though the moon had set, the whole sky was ablaze with stars, sparkling
with the keen, winter radiance which one sees only in cold weather.
"Pretty wedding, eh, Toto?" said the raccoon.
"Very pretty," said Toto; "very pretty indeed. I have enjoyed myself
immensely. What good people they are, those little woodmice. See here!
they made me fill all my pockets with checkerberries and nuts for the
others at home, and they sent so many messages of regret and apology to
Bruin that I shall not get any of them straight."
"Hello!" said the squirrel, who had been gazing up into the sky, "what's
that?"
"What's _what_?" asked the raccoon.
"_That!_" repeated Cracker. "That big thing with a tail, up among the
stars."
His companions both stared upward in their turn, and Toto exclaimed,--
"Why, it's a comet! I never saw one before, but I know what they look
like, from the pictures. It certainly _is_ a comet!"
"And _what_, if I may be so bold as to ask," said Coon, "_is_ a comet?"
"Why, it's--it's--THAT, you know!" said Toto.
"Exactly!" said Coon. "What a clear way you have of putting things, to
be sure!"
"Well," cried Toto, laughing, "I'm afraid I cannot put it _very_
clearly, because I don't know just _exactly_ what comets are, myself.
But they are heavenly bodies, and they come and go in the sky, with
tails; and sometimes you don't see one again for a thousand years; and
though you don't see them move, they are really going like lightning all
the time."
Coon and Cracker looked at each other, as if they feared that their
companion was losing his wits.
"Have they four legs?" asked Cracker. "And what do they live on?"
"They have no legs," replied Toto, "nothing but heads and tails; and I
don't believe they live on anything, unless," he added, with a twinkle
in his eye, "they get milk from the milky way."
The raccoon looked hard at Toto, and then equally hard at the comet,
which for its part spread its shining tail among the constellations, and
took no notice whatever of him.
"Can't you give us a little more of this precious information?" he said
with a sneer. "It is so valuable, you know, and we are so likely to
believe it, Cracker and I, being two greenhorns, as you seem to think."
Toto flushed, and his brow clouded for an instant, for Coon could be so
_very_ disagreeable when he tried; but the next moment he threw back his
head and laughed merrily.
"Yes, I will!" he cried. "I _will_ give you more information, old
fellow. I will tell you a story I once heard about a comet. It isn't
true, you know, but what of that? You will believe it just as much as
you would the truth. Listen, now, both you cross fellows, to the story
of
THE NAUGHTY COMET.
The door of the Comet House was open. In the great court-yard stood
hundreds of comets, of all sizes and shapes. Some were puffing and
blowing, and arranging their tails, all ready to start; others had just
come in, and looked shabby and forlorn after their long journeyings,
their tails drooping disconsolately; while others still were switched
off on side-tracks, where the tinker and the tailor were attending to
their wants, and setting them to rights. In the midst of all stood the
Comet Master, with his hands behind him, holding a very long stick with
a very sharp point. The comets knew just how the point of that stick
felt, for they were prodded with it whenever they misbehaved
themselves; accordingly, they all remained very quiet, while he gave
his orders for the day.
In a distant corner of the court-yard lay an old comet, with his tail
comfortably curled up around him. He was too old to go out, so he
enjoyed himself at home in a quiet way. Beside him stood a very young
comet, with a very short tail. He was quivering with excitement, and
occasionally cast sharp impatient glances at the Comet Master.
"Will he _never_ call me?" he exclaimed, but in an undertone, so that
only his companion could hear. "He knows I am dying to go out, and for
that very reason he pays no attention to me. I dare not leave my place,
for you know what he is."
"Ah!" said the old comet, slowly, "if you had been out as often as I
have, you would not be in such a hurry. Hot, tiresome work, _I_ call it.
And what does it all amount to?"
"Ay, that's the point!" exclaimed the young comet. "What _does_ it all
amount to? That is what I am determined to find out. I cannot understand
your going on, travelling and travelling, and never finding out why you
do it. _I_ shall find out, you may be very sure, before I have finished
my first journey."
"Better not! better not!" answered the old comet. "You'll only get into
trouble. Nobody knows except the Comet Master and the Sun. The Master
would cut you up into inch pieces if you asked him, and the Sun--"
"Well, what about the Sun?" asked the young comet, eagerly.
"Short-tailed Comet No. 73!" rang suddenly, clear and sharp, through the
court-yard.
The young comet started as if he had been shot, and in three bounds he
stood before the Comet Master, who looked fixedly at him.
"You have never been out before," said the Master.
"No, sir!" replied No. 73; and he knew better than to add another word.
"You will go out now," said the Comet Master. "You will travel for
thirteen weeks and three days, and will then return. You will avoid the
neighborhood of the Sun, the Earth, and the planet Bungo. You will turn
to the left on meeting other comets, and you are not allowed to speak to
meteors. These are your orders. Go!"
At the word, the comet shot out of the gate and off into space, his
short tail bobbing as he went.
Ah! here was something worth living for. No longer shut up in that
tiresome court-yard, waiting for one's tail to grow, but out in the
free, open, boundless realm of space, with leave to shoot about here and
there and everywhere--well, _nearly_ everywhere--for thirteen whole
weeks! Ah, what a glorious prospect! How swiftly he moved! How well his
tail looked, even though it was still rather short! What a fine fellow
he was, altogether!
For two or three weeks our comet was the happiest creature in all space;
too happy to think of anything except the joy of frisking about. But
by-and-by he began to wonder about things, and that is always dangerous
for a comet.
"I wonder, now," he said, "why I may not go near the planet Bungo. I
have always heard that he was the most interesting of all the planets.
And the Sun! how I _should_ like to know a little more about the Sun!
And, by the way, that reminds me that all this time I have never found
out _why_ I am travelling. It shows how I have been enjoying myself,
that I have forgotten it so long; but now I must certainly make a point
of finding out. Hello! there comes Long-Tail No. 45. I mean to ask him."
So he turned out to the left, and waited till No. 45 came along. The
latter was a middle-aged comet, very large, and with an uncommonly long
tail,--quite preposterously long, our little No. 73 thought, as he shook
his own tail and tried to make as much of it as possible.
"Good morning, Mr. Long-Tail!" he said as soon as the other was within
speaking distance. "Would you be so very good as to tell me what you are
travelling for?"
"For six months," answered No. 45 with a puff and a snort. "Started a
month ago; five months still to go."
"Oh, I don't mean that!" exclaimed Short-Tail No. 73. "I mean _why_ are
you travelling at all?"
"Comet Master sent me!" replied No. 45, briefly.
"But what for?" persisted the little comet. "What is it all about? What
good does it do? _Why_ do we travel for weeks and months and years?
That's what I want to find out."
"Don't know, I'm sure!" said the elder, still more shortly. "What's
more, don't care!"
The little comet fairly shook with amazement and indignation. "You don't
care!" he cried. "Is it possible? And how long, may I ask, have you been
travelling hither and thither through space, without knowing or caring
why?"
"Long enough to learn not to ask stupid questions!" answered Long-Tail
No. 45. "Good morning to you!"
And without another word he was off, with his preposterously long tail
spreading itself like a luminous fan behind him. The little comet looked
after him for some time in silence. At last he said:--
"Well, _I_ call that simply _disgusting_! An ignorant, narrow-minded
old--"
"Hello, cousin!" called a clear merry voice just behind him. "How goes
it with you? Shall we travel together? Our roads seem to go in the same
direction."
The comet turned and saw a bright and sparkling meteor. "I--I--must not
speak to you!" said No. 73, confusedly.
"Not speak to me!" exclaimed the meteor, laughing. "Why, what's the
matter? What have I done? I never saw you before in my life."
"N-nothing that I know of," answered No. 73, still more confused.
"Then why mustn't you speak to me?" persisted the meteor, giving a
little skip and jump. "Eh? tell me that, will you? _Why_ mustn't you?"
"I--don't--know!" answered the little comet, slowly, for he was ashamed
to say boldly, as he ought to have done, that it was against the orders
of the Comet Master.
"Oh, gammon!" cried the meteor, with another skip. "_I_ know! Comet
Master, eh? But a fine high-spirited young fellow like you isn't going
to be afraid of that old tyrant. Come along, I say! If there were any
_real reason_ why you should not speak to me--"
"That's just what I say," interrupted the comet, eagerly. "What IS the
reason? Why don't they tell it to me?"
"'Cause there isn't any!" rejoined the meteor. "Come along!"
After a little more hesitation, the comet yielded, and the two frisked
merrily along, side by side. As they went, No. 73 confided all his
vexations to his new friend, who sympathized warmly with him, and spoke
in most disrespectful terms of the Comet Master.
"A pretty sort of person to dictate to you, when he hasn't the smallest
sign of a tail himself! I wouldn't submit to it!" cried the meteor. "As
to the other orders, some of them are not so bad. Of course, nobody
would want to go near that stupid, poky Earth, if he could possibly help
it; and the planet Bungo is--ah--is not a very nice planet, I believe.
[The fact is, the planet Bungo contains a large reform school for unruly
meteors, but our friend made no mention of that.] But as for the
Sun,--the bright, jolly, delightful Sun,--why, I am going to take a
nearer look at him myself. Come on! We will go together, in spite of the
Comet Master."
Again the little comet hesitated and demurred; but after all, he had
already broken one rule, and why not another? He would be punished in
any case, and he might as well get all the pleasure he could. Reasoning
thus, he yielded once more to the persuasions of the meteor, and
together they shot through the great space-world, taking their way
straight toward the Sun.
When the Sun saw them coming, he smiled and seemed much pleased. He
stirred his fire, and shook his shining locks, and blazed brighter and
brighter, hotter and hotter. The heat seemed to have a strange effect on
the comet, for he began to go faster and faster.
"Hold on!" said the meteor. "Why are you hurrying so? I cannot keep up
with you."
"I cannot stop myself!" cried No. 73. "Something is drawing me forward,
faster and faster!"
On he went at a terrible rate, the meteor following as best he might.
Several planets which he passed shouted to him in warning tones, but he
could not hear what they said. The Sun stirred his fire again, and
blazed brighter and brighter, hotter and hotter; and forward rushed the
wretched little comet, faster and faster, faster and faster!
"Catch hold of my tail and stop me!" he shrieked to the meteor. "I am
shrivelling, burning up, in this fearful heat! Stop me, for pity's
sake!"
But the meteor was already far behind, and had stopped short to watch
his companion's headlong progress. And now,--ah, me!--now the Sun opened
his huge fiery mouth. The comet made one desperate effort to stop
himself, but it was in vain. An awful, headlong plunge through the
intervening space; a hissing and crackling; a shriek,--and the fiery
jaws had closed on Short-Tail No. 73, forever!
"Dear me!" said the meteor. "How very shocking! I quite forgot that the
Sun ate comets. I must be off, or I shall get an æon in the Reform
School for this. I am really very sorry, for he was a nice little
comet!"
And away frisked the meteor, and soon forgot all about it.
But in the great court-yard in front of the Comet House, the Master took
a piece of chalk, and crossed out No. 73 from the list of short-tailed
comets on the slate that hangs on the door. Then he called out, "No. 1
Express, come forward!" and the swiftest of all the comets stood before
him, brilliant and beautiful, with a bewildering magnificence of tail.
The Comet Master spoke sharply and decidedly, as usual, but not
unkindly.
"No. 73, Short-Tail," he said, "has disobeyed orders, and has in
consequence been devoured by the Sun."
Here there was a great sensation among the comets.
"No. 1," continued the Master, "you will start immediately, and travel
until you find a runaway meteor, with a red face and blue hair. You are
permitted to make inquiries of respectable bodies, such as planets or
satellites. When found, you will arrest him and take him to the planet
Bungo. My compliments to the Meteor Keeper, and I shall be obliged if he
will give this meteor two æons in the Reform School. I trust," he
continued, turning to the assembled comets, "that this will be a lesson
to all of you!"
And I believe it was.