way, his kindly dissection, and his
graceful English. Socially, he charmed us all. He chatted with every
one, he smiled on all. He said he was sorry to leave the college, and
that he felt he must come to America again. We have not had such an
awakening for years. It was like a new volume of old English poetry.

"March 16, 1885. In February, 1831, I counted seconds for father, who
observed the annular eclipse at Nantucket. I was twelve and a half years
old. In 1885, fifty-four years later, I counted seconds for a class of
students at Vassar; it was the same eclipse, but the sun was only about
half-covered. Both days were perfectly clear and cold."

CHAPTER X

1873

SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR--RUSSIA--FRANCES POWER COBBE--"THE GLASGOW COLLEGE
FOR GIRLS"

In 1873, Miss Mitchell spent the summer in Europe, and availed herself
of this opportunity to visit the government observatory at Pulkova, in
Russia.

"Eydkuhnen, Wednesday, July 30, 1873. Certainly, I never in my life
expected to spend twenty-four hours in this small town, the frontier
town of Prussia. Here I remembered that our little bags would be
examined, and I asked the guard about it, but he said we need not
trouble ourselves; we should not be examined until we reached the first
Russian town of Wiersbelow. So, after a mile more of travel, we came to
Wiersbelow. Knowing that we should keep our little compartment until we
got to St. Petersburg, we had scattered our luggage about; gloves were
in one place, veil in another, shawl in another, parasol in another, and
books all around.

"The train stopped. Imagine our consternation! Two officials entered the
carriage, tall Russians in full uniform, and seized everything--shawls,
books, gloves, bags; and then, looking around very carefully, espied W's
poor little ragged handkerchief, and seized that, too, as a contraband
article! We looked at one another, and said nothing. The tall Russian
said something to us; we looked at each other and sat still. The tall
Russians looked at one another, and there was almost an official smile
between them.

"Then one turned to me, and said, very distinctly, 'Passy-port.' 'Oh,' I
said, 'the passports are all right; where are they?' and we produced
from our pockets the passports prepared at Washington, with the official
seal, and we delivered them with a sort of air as if we had said,
'You'll find that they do things all right at Washington.'

"The tall Russians got out, and