I suppose I am making a good deal more of our prospective visit than it deserves.It must be because I have got it into my head that we are bound to have some kind of sentimental outbreak amongst us, and that this will give a chance for advances on the part of anybody disposed in that direction.A little change of circumstance often hastens on a movement that has been long in preparation.A chemist will show you a flask containing a clear liquid; he will give it a shake or two, and the whole contents of the flask will become solid in an instant.Or you may lay a little heap of iron-filings on a sheet of paper with a magnet beneath it, and they will be quiet enough as they are, but give the paper a slight jar and the specks of metal will suddenly find their way to the north or the south pole of the magnet and take a definite shape not unpleasing to contemplate, and curiously illustrating the laws of attraction, antagonism, and average, by which the worlds, conscious and unconscious, are alike governed.So with our little party, with any little party of persons who have got used to each other; leave them undisturbed and they might remain in a state of equilibrium forever; but let anything give them a shake or a jar, and the long-striving but hindered affinities come all at once into play and finish the work of a year in five minutes.
We were all a good deal excited by the anticipation of this visit.
The Capitalist, who for the most part keeps entirely to himself, seemed to take an interest in it and joined the group in the parlor who were making arrangements as to the details of the eventful expedition, which was very soon to take place.The Young Girl was full of enthusiasm; she is one of those young persons, I think, who are impressible, and of necessity depressible when their nervous systems are overtasked, but elastic, recovering easily from mental worries and fatigues, and only wanting a little change of their conditions to get back their bloom and cheerfulness.I could not help being pleased to see how much of the child was left in her, after all the drudgery she had been through.What is there that youth will not endure and triumph over? Here she was; her story for the week was done in good season; she had got rid of her villain by a new and original catastrophe; she had received a sum of money for an extra string of verses,--painfully small, it is true, but it would buy her a certain ribbon she wanted for the great excursion; and now her eyes sparkled so that I forgot how tired and hollow they sometimes looked when she had been sitting up half the night over her endless manuscript.
The morning of the day we had looked forward to--promised as good an evening as we could wish.The Capitalist, whose courteous and bland demeanor would never have suggested the thought that he was a robber and an enemy of his race, who was to be trampled underfoot by the beneficent regenerators of the social order as preliminary to the universal reign of peace on earth and good-will to men, astonished us all with a proposal to escort the three ladies and procure a carriage for their conveyance.The Lady thanked him in a very cordial way, but said she thought nothing of the walk.The Landlady looked disappointed at this answer.For her part she was on her legs all day and should be glad enough to ride, if so be he was going to have a carriage at any rate.It would be a sight pleasanter than to trudge afoot, but she would n't have him go to the expense on her account.Don't mention it, madam,--r--said the Capitalist, in a generous glow of enthusiasm.As for the Young Girl, she did not often get a chance for a drive, and liked the idea of it for its own sake, as children do, and she insisted that the Lady should go in the carriage with her.So it was settled that the Capitalist should take the three ladies in a carriage, and the rest of us go on foot.
The evening behaved as it was bound to do on so momentous an occasion.The Capitalist was dressed with almost suspicious nicety.
We pedestrians could not help waiting to see them off, and I thought he handed the ladies into the carriage with the air of a French marquis.
I walked with Dr.Benjamin and That Boy, and we had to keep the little imp on the trot a good deal of the way in order not to be too long behind the carriage party.The Member of the Haouse walked with our two dummies,--I beg their pardon, I mean the Register of Deeds and the Salesman.
The Man of Letters, hypothetically so called, walked by himself, smoking a short pipe which was very far from suggesting the spicy breezes that blow soft from Ceylon's isle.
I suppose everybody who reads this paper has visited one or more observatories, and of course knows all about them.But as it may hereafter be translated into some foreign tongue and circulated among barbarous, but rapidly improving people, people who have as yet no astronomers among them, it may be well to give a little notion of what kind of place an observatory is.
To begin then: a deep and solid stone foundation is laid in the earth, and a massive pier of masonry is built up on it.A heavy block of granite forms the summit of this pier, and on this block rests the equatorial telescope.Around this structure a circular tower is built, with two or more floors which come close up to the pier, but do not touch it at any point.It is crowned with a hemispherical dome, which, I may remark, half realizes the idea of my egg-shell studio.This dome is cleft from its base to its summit by a narrow, ribbon-like opening, through which is seen the naked sky.
