at tbe Sign of tbe Beautiful Star. 161 



ledge, some five minutes' walk below the summit, 

 with a fine eastern prospect. A little " wind-break," 

 made by stretching a rubber blanket between two 

 trees and slanting it back to the ground, was all the 

 shelter we had ; and the surface of the ledge, uphol- 

 stered scantily with grass and moss and wild plants, 

 was our very primitive couch. But when the camp- 

 fire had been kindled, and had begun to throw its 

 flickering light into the shadowy wood, and to flare 

 and flash out into the great empty spaces of the 

 night, it seemed as if we had created here in the 

 forest, and on the solitary height, a charmed circle of 

 cheerfulness and security. And over all the stars 

 glittered in a stupendous mockery of our tiny torch, 

 but with an air, nevertheless, of infinite and tender 

 protection. 



Such starlight, indeed, it has rarely been my lot 

 to see ! The sky was as clear as on those cold nights 

 in midwinter of which friend Hosea Biglow used to 

 say that they were 



" All silence and all glisten." 



A cloudless air, without a trace of haze, permitted the 

 eye to sweep the whole firmament, and to see every 

 star that ever made itself visible to human sight. 

 Even after the moon had risen, the brilliancy of the 

 stellar display was hardly abated. Through every 

 hole and crevice in our leafy thatch there was a star 

 peeping down upon us ; and the gaps in the sparse 

 pine and maple growth showed the great constella- 



