5, 1854.

The love of one's own sex is precious, for it is neither provoked by vanity nor retained by flattery; it is genuine and sincere.
I am grateful that I have had much of this in my life.
"The comet looked in upon us on the 29th.

It made a twilight call, looking sunny and bright, as if it had just warmed itself in the equinoctial rays.

A boy on the street called my attention to it, but I found on hurrying home that father had already seen it, and had ranged it behind buildings so as to get a rough position.
"It was piping cold, but we went to work in good earnest that night, and the next night on which we could see it, which was not until April.
"I was dreadfully busy, and a host of little annoyances crowded upon me.
I had a good star near it in the field of my comet-seeker, but _what_ star?
"On that rested everything, and I could not be sure even from the catalogue, for the comet and the star were so much in the twilight that I could get no good neighboring stars.

We called it Arietes, or 707.
"Then came a waxing moon, and we waxed weary in trying to trace the fainter and fainter comet in the mists of twilight and the glare of moonlight.
"Next I broke a screw of my instrument, and found that no screw of that description could be bought in the town.
"I started off to find a man who could make one, and engaged him to do so the next day.