NURSLINGS OF THE SKY 



the floor of heaven, flat and pearly gray 

 beneath, rounded and pearly white above. 

 They gather flock-wise, moving on the level 

 currents that roll about the peaks, lock 

 hands and settle with the cooler air, draw- 

 ing a veil about those places where they do 

 their work. If their meeting or parting 

 takes place at sunrise or sunset, as it often 

 does, one gets the splendor of the apoca- 

 lypse. There will be cloud pillars miles 

 high, snow-capped, glorified, and preserv- 

 ing an orderly perspective before the un- 

 barred door of the sun, or perhaps mere 

 ghosts of clouds that dance to some pied 

 piper of an unfelt wind. But be it day or 

 night, once they have settled to their work, 

 one sees from the valley only the blank 

 wall of their tents stretched along the 

 ranges. To get the real effect of a moun- 

 tain storm you must be inside. 

 248 



