Off on a Comet by Jules Verne — Read

In a few minutes the governor general and his population were asleep. / The gourbi being in ruins, they were obliged to put up with the best / accommodation they could find in the adjacent erection. It must be owned / that the captain's slumbers were by no means sound; he was agitated by / the consciousness that he had hitherto been unable to account for his / strange experiences by any reasonable theory. Though far from being / advanced in the knowledge of natural philosophy, he had been instructed, / to a certain degree, in its elementary principles; and, by an effort / of memory, he managed to recall some general laws which he had almost / forgotten. He could understand that an altered inclination of the / earth's axis with regard to the ecliptic would introduce a change of / position in the cardinal points, and bring about a displacement of / the sea; but the hypothesis entirely failed to account, either for the / shortening of the days, or for the diminution in the pressure of the / atmosphere. He felt that his judgment was utterly baffled; his only / remaining hope was that the chain of marvels was not yet complete, and / that something farther might throw some light upon the mystery.

Ben Zoof's first care on the following morning was to provide a / good breakfast. To use his own phrase, he was as hungry as the / whole population of three million Algerians, of whom he was the / representative, and he must have enough to eat. The catastrophe which / had overwhelmed the country had left a dozen eggs uninjured, and upon / these, with a good dish of his famous couscous, he hoped that he and his / master might have a sufficiently substantial meal. The stove was ready / for use, the copper skillet was as bright as hands could make it, and / the beads of condensed steam upon the surface of a large stone al-caraza / gave evidence that it was supplied with water. Ben Zoof at once lighted / a fire, singing all the time, according to his wont, a snatch of an old / military refrain.