NONSUCH 



for myself, for many years ago I evaded a pair of 

 sleepy guards and climbed by night to the apex of 

 Cheops. There I stretched out and pretended I was 

 an astrologer vizier of some Pharaoh of olden time. 

 And I remember sitting up so quickly that I nearly 

 fell down one of the giant steps, when a low ^tsip! 

 'tsip! came to my ears. It was the slightest whisper 

 of a sound but it destroyed Egypt and my vizier- 

 ship, and replaced them with a more prosaic land- 

 scape and personality, recalling the time when, on 

 a distant continent, as a boy, I listened each spring 

 and autumn to the chirps of the migrating hosts. 

 One fortunate night I was permitted a glimpse 

 of these vast flocks. I squatted on the swaying floor 

 of the torch of the Statue of Liberty when the fog 

 drifted in from the sea and closed down grey and 

 silent. With it came birds which before had been 

 only disembodied voices, and the fog, which ob- 

 literated the heavens and the earth, made the mi- 

 grating flocks visible to my eyes. More and more 

 they came, until a swarm of golden bees was the 

 only simile I could think of. I dared not face them 

 full, for now and then one struck the light with 

 terrific impact. So I peered from behind the railing 

 and watched the living atoms dash into view, shine 

 for an instant, and vanish, so rapidly that when 

 I looked through half-closed lids the driving sparks 

 consolidated and lengthened into luminous lines. I 

 think that I enjoyed it as a spectacle more in retro- 

 spect than at the time, for my emotion was dis- 

 tracted by the occasional thud at my feet of black- 



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