A WAIF OF SPACE
One night as I was waiting, watch in hand, for an occultation, and
striving hard to keep awake, for it had been a hot and exhausting
summer's day, while my wife--we were then in our honeymoon--sat
sympathetically by my side, I suddenly found myself withdrawn from the
telescope, and standing in a place that appeared entirely strange. It
was a very smooth bit of ground, and, to my surprise, there was no
horizon in sight; that is to say, the surface of the ground disappeared
on all sides at a short distance off, and beyond nothing but sky was
visible. I thought I must be on the top of a stupendous mountain, and
yet I was puzzled to understand how the face of the earth could be so
far withdrawn. Presently I became aware that there was some one by me
whom I could not see.
"You are not on a mountain," my companion said, and as he spoke a cold
shiver ran along my back-bone; "you are on an asteroid, one of those
miniature planets, as you astronomers call them, and of which you have
discovered several hundred revolving between the orbits of Mars and
Jupiter. This is the little globe that you have glimpsed occasionally
with your telescope, and that you, or some of your fellows, have been
kind enough to name Menippe."
Then I perceived that my companion, whose address had hardly been
reassuring, was a gigantic inhabitant of the little planet, towering up
to a height of three quarters of a mile.
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