the next night on which we could see it, which was not until April.

"I was dreadfully busy, and a host of little annoyances crowded upon me.
I had a good star near it in the field of my comet-seeker, but _what_
star?

"On that rested everything, and I could not be sure even from the
catalogue, for the comet and the star were so much in the twilight that
I could get no good neighboring stars. We called it Arietes, or 707.

"Then came a waxing moon, and we waxed weary in trying to trace the
fainter and fainter comet in the mists of twilight and the glare of
moonlight.

"Next I broke a screw of my instrument, and found that no screw of that
description could be bought in the town.

"I started off to find a man who could make one, and engaged him to do
so the next day. The next day was Fast Day; all the world fasted, at
least from labor.

"However, the screw was made, and it fitted nicely. The clouds cleared,
and we were likely to have a good night. I put up my instrument, but
scarcely had the screw-driver touched the new screw than out it flew
from its socket, rolled along the floor of the 'walk,' dropped quietly
through a crack into the gutter of the house-roof. I heard it click, and
felt very much like using language unbecoming to a woman's mouth.

"I put my eye down to the crack, but could not see it. There was but one
thing to be done,--the floor-boards must come up. I got a hatchet, but