The Road to Dumbiedykes 



feasible proposal. However, I have 

 consolation in respect to that. I can 

 show you any May morning from 

 the casements of Dumbiedykes the 

 original of Guido Reni's inspiration. 

 It, too, is a ceiling proposition; a 

 picture projected first but very faintly 

 upon the dark canvas of the waning 

 night, but developed across the great 

 blue vault with such a subtle turning 

 on of lights that for the space of per- 

 haps an hour you will be truly spell- 

 bound in the grip of the eternal mystery 

 that precedes the final dazzling advent 

 of Phoebus Apollo himself in his car of 

 fire. 



Probably you had rather sleep. 

 Well, so had I, as a regular procedure, 

 but out at Dumbiedykes we are apt to 

 retire not so very long after the feath- 

 ered tribes have settled for the night. 

 Nine o'clock often finds us in our nest, 

 but I have discovered that as the world 

 grows older I do not seem to require as 

 much sleep as in earlier times. There is 

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