true, was not properly "New Year's Day" in
Gallia, but Captain Servadac, nevertheless, was very anxious to have it
observed as a holiday.

"I do not think," he said to Count Timascheff and Lieutenant Procope,
"that we ought to allow our people to lose their interest in the world
to which we are all hoping to return; and how can we cement the bond
that ought to unite us, better than by celebrating, in common with our
fellow-creatures upon earth, a day that awakens afresh the kindliest
sentiments of all? Besides," he added, smiling, "I expect that Gallia,
although invisible just at present to the naked eye, is being closely
watched by the telescopes of our terrestrial friends, and I have no
doubt that the newspapers and scientific journals of both hemispheres
are full of accounts detailing the movements of the new comet."

"True," asserted the count. "I can quite imagine that we are occasioning
no small excitement in all the chief observatories."

"Ay, more than that," said the lieutenant; "our Gallia is certain to
be far more than a mere object of scientific interest or curiosity. Why
should we doubt that the elements of a comet which has once come into
collision with the earth have by this time been accurately calculated?
What our friend the professor has done here, has been done likewise on
the earth, where, beyond a question, all manner of expedients are being
discussed as to the best way of mitigating the violence of a concussion
that must occur."

The lieutenant's conjectures were so reasonable that they commanded
assent. Gallia could scarcely be otherwise than an object of terror to
the inhabitants of the earth, who could by no means be certain that a
second collision would be comparatively so harmless as the first. Even
to the Gallians themselves, much as they looked forward to the event,
the prospect was not unmixed with alarm, and they would rejoice in the
invention of any device by which it was likely the impetus of the shock
might be deadened.

Christmas arrived, and was marked by appropriate religious observance
by everyone in the community, with the exception of the Jew, who made
a point of secluding himself more obstinately than ever in the gloomy
recesses of his retreat.

To Ben Zoof the last week of the year was full of bustle. The
arrangements for the New Year _fete_ were entrusted to him, and he was
anxious, in spite of the resources of Gallia being so limited, to make
the program for the great