Three days passed, and he did not go out, feeling perfectly unfit to be seen.
Then he began to grow uneasy, and wondered whether Pete was ill from the beating he had received, and the dog dead.
But the time went on, and he heard that Pete had gone away. David had told Mrs Fidler, and she bore the news to Tom.
“And it’s a great blessing, my dear,” she said, “for he was a very bad, wicked boy, and I don’t know what he didn’t deserve for beating you so dreadfully.”
“Oh, but he was as bad, or worse,” said Tom.
“He couldn’t have been, my dear. Look at your poor face even now.”
“No. Bother! I don’t want to look at my face for ever so long yet,” replied Tom. “Perhaps it’s a good job though that he has gone.”
Then the winter came, with glorious, clear, starry nights, when the cold was forgotten, and Tom had his share of feasting upon the wonders of the heavens with the small telescope. Now it would be an hour with the great Nebula in Orion, then one with the wondrous Ring Nebula. Another night would be devoted to the double, triple, and quadruple stars, those which, though single to the naked eye, when viewed by the help of the glass showed that they were two, three, or four, perfectly separate. Then the various colours were studied, and diamond-like Sirius was viewed, as well as his ruby, topaz, sapphire, and emerald companions in the great sphere. The moon was journeyed over at every opportunity, with her silvery, pumice-like craters, and greyish-bottomed ring-plains, surrounded by their mighty walls of twelve to seventeen thousand feet in height. Tycho and Copernicus, with their long silvery rays; brilliant Aristarchus; dark, deep Plato; the straight valley, the so-called seas, the smooth, round, smaller craters, isolated Pico, the ridges, and the wildly-rugged battlements upon the terminator—all were scanned in turn, with Tom’s thirst increasing every time he looked.
For there was always something new to see, as well as plenty of surprises, when some meteor suddenly shot across the field of the telescope. But Uncle Richard said—
“Wait till we get the big one done!”