CHAPTER VI 

 DESERT SKY AND CLOUDS 



How silently, even swiftly, the days glide by 

 out in the desert, in the waste, in the wilder- 

 ness ! How " the morning and the evening 

 make np the day " and the purple shadow slips 

 in between with a midnight all stars ! And 

 how day by day the interest grows in the long 

 overlooked commonplace things of nature ! In 

 a few weeks we are studying bushes, bowlders, 

 stones, sand-drifts things we never thought of 

 looking at in any other country. And after a 

 time we begin to make mental notes on the 

 changes of light, air, clouds, and blue sky. At 

 first we are perhaps bothered about the inten- 

 sity of the sky, for we have always heard of the 

 " deep blue " that overhangs the desert ; and 

 we expect to see it at any and all times. But 

 we discover that it shows itself in its greatest 

 depth only in the morning before sunrise. Then 

 it is a dark blue, bordering upon purple ; and 

 for some time after the sun comes up it holds a 

 95 



Common- 

 place thingt 

 of nature. 



