CHAPTER VII.
TOTO and his companions walked homeward in high spirits. The air wascrisp and tingling; the snow crackled merrily beneath their feet; andthough the moon had set, the whole sky was ablaze with stars, sparklingwith 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 myselfimmensely. What good people they are, those little woodmice. See here!they made me fill all my pockets with checkerberries and nuts for theothers at home, and they sent so many messages of regret and apology toBruin that I shall not get any of them straight."
"Hello!" said the squirrel, who had been gazing up into the sky, "what'sthat?"
"What's _what_?" asked the raccoon.
"_That!_" repeated Cracker. "That big thing with a tail, up among thestars."
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 looklike, 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, tobe 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, withtails; and sometimes you don't see one again for a thousand years; andthough you don't see them move, they are really going like lightning allthe time."
Coon and Cracker looked at each other, as if they feared that theircompanion 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 Idon't believe they live on anything, unless," he added, with a twinklein 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, andtook no notice whatever of him.
"Can't you give us a little more of this precious information?" he saidwith a sneer. "It is so valuable, you know, and we are so likely tobelieve 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 hishead and laughed merrily.
"Yes, I will!" he cried. "I _will_ give you more information, oldfellow. I will tell you a story I once heard about a comet. It isn'ttrue, you know, but what of that? You will believe it just as much asyou would the truth. Listen, now, both you cross fellows, to the storyof
THE NAUGHTY COMET.
The door of the Comet House was open. In the great court-yard stoodhundreds of comets, of all sizes and shapes. Some were puffing andblowing, and arranging their tails, all ready to start; others had justcome in, and looked shabby and forlorn after their long journeyings,their tails drooping disconsolately; while others still were switchedoff on side-tracks, where the tinker and the tailor were attending totheir wants, and setting them to rights. In the midst of all stood theComet Master, with his hands behind him, holding a very long stick witha very sharp point. The comets knew just how the point of that stickfelt, for they were prodded with it whenever they misbehavedthemselves; accordingly, they all remained very quiet, while he gavehis orders for the day.
In a distant corner of the court-yard lay an old comet, with his tailcomfortably curled up around him. He was too old to go out, so heenjoyed himself at home in a quiet way. Beside him stood a very youngcomet, with a very short tail. He was quivering with excitement, andoccasionally cast sharp impatient glances at the Comet Master.
"Will he _never_ call me?" he exclaimed, but in an undertone, so thatonly his companion could hear. "He knows I am dying to go out, and forthat 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 Ihave, 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 allamount to? That is what I am determined to find out. I cannot understandyour going on, travelling and travelling, and never finding out why youdo it. _I_ shall find out, you may be very sure, before I have finishedmy first journey."
"Better not! better not!" answered the old comet. "You'll only get intotrouble. Nobody knows except the Comet Master and the Sun. The Masterwould 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 thecourt-yard.
The young comet started as if he had been shot, and in three bounds hestood 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 forthirteen weeks and three days, and will then return. You will avoid theneighborhood of the Sun, the Earth, and the planet Bungo. You will turnto the left on meeting other comets, and you are not allowed to speak tometeors. These are your orders. Go!"
At the word, the comet shot out of the gate and off into space, hisshort tail bobbing as he went.
Ah! here was something worth living for. No longer shut up in thattiresome court-yard, waiting for one's tail to grow, but out in thefree, open, boundless realm of space, with leave to shoot about here andthere and everywhere--well, _nearly_ everywhere--for thirteen wholeweeks! Ah, what a glorious prospect! How swiftly he moved! How well histail looked, even though it was still rather short! What a fine fellowhe 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. Butby-and-by he began to wonder about things, and that is always dangerousfor a comet.
"I wonder, now," he said, "why I may not go near the planet Bungo. Ihave 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 foundout _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 pointof 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. Thelatter was a middle-aged comet, very large, and with an uncommonly longtail,--quite preposterously long, our little No. 73 thought, as he shookhis 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 withinspeaking distance. "Would you be so very good as to tell me what you aretravelling for?"
"For six months," answered No. 45 with a puff and a snort. "Started amonth ago; five months still to go."
"Oh, I don't mean that!" exclaimed Short-Tail No. 73. "I mean _why_ areyou travelling at all?"
"Comet Master sent me!" replied No. 45, briefly.
"But what for?" persisted the little comet. "What is it all about? Whatgood 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'smore, don't care!"
The little comet fairly shook with amazement and indignation. "You don'tcare!" he cried. "Is it possible? And how long, may I ask, have you beentravelling hither and thither through space, without knowing or caringwhy?"
"Long enough to learn not to ask stupid questions!" answered Long-TailNo. 45. "Good morning to you!"
And without another word he was off, with his preposterously long tailspre
ading itself like a luminous fan behind him. The little comet lookedafter him for some time in silence. At last he said:--
"Well, _I_ call that simply _disgusting_! An ignorant, narrow-mindedold--"
"Hello, cousin!" called a clear merry voice just behind him. "How goesit with you? Shall we travel together? Our roads seem to go in the samedirection."
The comet turned and saw a bright and sparkling meteor. "I--I--must notspeak to you!" said No. 73, confusedly.
"Not speak to me!" exclaimed the meteor, laughing. "Why, what's thematter? 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 alittle 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 ashamedto say boldly, as he ought to have done, that it was against the ordersof the Comet Master.
"Oh, gammon!" cried the meteor, with another skip. "_I_ know! CometMaster, eh? But a fine high-spirited young fellow like you isn't goingto 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 thereason? 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 friskedmerrily along, side by side. As they went, No. 73 confided all hisvexations to his new friend, who sympathized warmly with him, and spokein most disrespectful terms of the Comet Master.
"A pretty sort of person to dictate to you, when he hasn't the smallestsign of a tail himself! I wouldn't submit to it!" cried the meteor. "Asto the other orders, some of them are not so bad. Of course, nobodywould want to go near that stupid, poky Earth, if he could possibly helpit; 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 unrulymeteors, but our friend made no mention of that.] But as for theSun,--the bright, jolly, delightful Sun,--why, I am going to take anearer look at him myself. Come on! We will go together, in spite of theComet Master."
Again the little comet hesitated and demurred; but after all, he hadalready broken one rule, and why not another? He would be punished inany case, and he might as well get all the pleasure he could. Reasoningthus, he yielded once more to the persuasions of the meteor, andtogether they shot through the great space-world, taking their waystraight toward the Sun.
When the Sun saw them coming, he smiled and seemed much pleased. Hestirred his fire, and shook his shining locks, and blazed brighter andbrighter, hotter and hotter. The heat seemed to have a strange effect onthe comet, for he began to go faster and faster.
"Hold on!" said the meteor. "Why are you hurrying so? I cannot keep upwith 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 hecould not hear what they said. The Sun stirred his fire again, andblazed brighter and brighter, hotter and hotter; and forward rushed thewretched little comet, faster and faster, faster and faster!
"Catch hold of my tail and stop me!" he shrieked to the meteor. "I amshrivelling, burning up, in this fearful heat! Stop me, for pity'ssake!"
But the meteor was already far behind, and had stopped short to watchhis companion's headlong progress. And now,--ah, me!--now the Sun openedhis huge fiery mouth. The comet made one desperate effort to stophimself, but it was in vain. An awful, headlong plunge through theintervening space; a hissing and crackling; a shriek,--and the fieryjaws had closed on Short-Tail No. 73, forever!
"Dear me!" said the meteor. "How very shocking! I quite forgot that theSun ate comets. I must be off, or I shall get an aeon in the ReformSchool for this. I am really very sorry, for he was a nice littlecomet!"
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 tooka piece of chalk, and crossed out No. 73 from the list of short-tailedcomets on the slate that hangs on the door. Then he called out, "No. 1Express, come forward!" and the swiftest of all the comets stood beforehim, brilliant and beautiful, with a bewildering magnificence of tail.The Comet Master spoke sharply and decidedly, as usual, but notunkindly.
"No. 73, Short-Tail," he said, "has disobeyed orders, and has inconsequence been devoured by the Sun."
Here there was a great sensation among the comets.
"No. 1," continued the Master, "you will start immediately, and traveluntil you find a runaway meteor, with a red face and blue hair. You arepermitted to make inquiries of respectable bodies, such as planets orsatellites. When found, you will arrest him and take him to the planetBungo. My compliments to the Meteor Keeper, and I shall be obliged if hewill give this meteor two aeons in the Reform School. I trust," hecontinued, turning to the assembled comets, "that this will be a lessonto all of you!"
And I believe it was.