ON THE COAST OF ARE AN 



the sky. We were far enough from shore to be 

 outside the shadow of the Island, and literally 

 we floated in a sea of glory. The light came 

 over the top of Suidhe-Fergus and, from where 

 it struck the water, away for miles and miles 

 the waves were of an inconceivable colour an 

 interchanging crimson, purple, blue, and green. 

 Later, when the waves grew dark, the pomp 

 was continued in the sky ; then the mountains 

 became a wall of black, sharp in outline, but 

 without further discrimination of form ; and, 

 finally, the moon, rising late and just past the 

 full, made a bridge of light from Ayrshire to 

 Arran, and filled all the south-east with a radi- 

 ance which was warm enough to be called 

 golden. It is well, perhaps, that such days come 

 but seldom. If they were a frequent visitation 

 we should either have to veil our faces, like the 

 leader of Israel, or repetition would dull the 

 sense of beauty. In the meantime, when such 

 a revelation does come it seems to speak to us as 



