the fleece-like clouds that dotted the horizon, and how in all
her splendor, she swept as the queen of the night across the
sky, the stars doing homage for, methinks, they bowed their
beads as she drew near since their faces showed no more; but
after she had passed, they sparkled yet brighter, and twink
led yet more merrily, as they sped along in the path, their
queen so latey trod.
Then after showing me all this beauty, Nix showed me
the mountain, bulky and black, standing guard over the valley,
and filling me with awe because of their majestic appearance.
He showed me the rolling landscape dotted here and there
with a home, and the little village resting snugly at the foot
of the hill on which my home was built. He told me to listen
to the clatter of the voices in the town below, as the youths
calling to each other, as the men in earnest argument, and as
the merry laughter of a party of gay, young folks, all joined
to swell the sound which reached my ears. He told me to
listen to the tramp of people wending their way homeward
after an evening spent in converse with co-workers; to the
rumble upon the pike of the conveyances, as they bore their
burdens to a merry, or to a sad destination; to the faint
strains of music wafted across the fields from a ball room at
the further end of the town; to the distant yell of some col
lege men, out for a lark; to the sighing of the wind among
the trees; and at last to the sound that is dear to us all, and
that none will ever forget,—the soft crooning of a mother to
her babe in a house near by.
He showed me not only this alone; but more. He taught
me to see the beauties of nature as God has so bountifully
bestowed them about us. He showed me that it was my own
blindness that kept me from seeing things as they really are;
and that this vast picture is for our enjoyment, a cure for all
sadness and sorrow.
Tired out with his instruction, Nix fell asleep on the
window seat; and I went to rest on my downy couch, to
dream of Nix and the beauties of nature. W. 'OO.