Correspondence.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 109, 18 September 1868, Page 3

Correspondence.

— <£• THE COMET. TO THB EDITOR OF THB STAK. Sir, — On Wednesday night I was alarmed by an excited youth rushing into my backyard and screaming " fire." Hastily jumping out of bed and buckling on my belt and tomahawk, I opened my up-stairs window and asked, as well as my excited feelings would allow me, " Where ? " He could not answer me, for, with distorted features, he pointed to the sky, and bellowed, " It's coming, the comet is coming, and we shall all be roasted." I rushed out of the house down to the fire alarm bell, and on my way to it I saw not only one comet but a dozen, all shooting up into the sky. I was getting on to the roof of the fire engine house to alarm all the inhabitants, when I found that the comet had gone, and that all the others which had been sprouting up had vanished.

I was afraid that they were only hidden by a mist, and went to ask Dr Donald, the übiquiquitous and universally informed, about it, but he was in Christchurch, looking after some of his multifarious duties. I asked the policeman, but he maintained an official silence. A captain, to whom I explained the matter as well as' my excited feelings would allow, said " the comet was the roarers." I suppose he meant the Aurora Australis. Can you tell your anxious enquirer, and Your obedient servant, LYTTELTON.

[We recommend our correspondent to wait patiently, if he can, for the return of Dr Donald. Perhaps the well-known "moist ways of the sea" had something to do with the matter. — Ed. SX]

Variotiea.

♦ XTake two letters from money, and there will be but one left. /. When is a man compelled to keep his word? — When no one will take it. Married life often begins with rosewood and mahogany, and ends with pine. An amorous swain declares he is so fond of a girl that he has rubbed the skin from his nose by kissing her shadow on the wall. A hopeless case that. Man has three friends in this world. How do they demean themselves towards him ? Gold is the first to leave him, and accompanies him not. His kinsmen accompany him to the portal of the grave, and then turn back to their own houses. The third, whom he ia moßt neglectful of, is his good works. They alone go with him to the Judge's throne, they stand before him, and speak for him, and obtain mercy and grace. ■«_Paß_--____--M-BM--_-__M----M