6 A SHARP LOOKOUT. 



and the family would all wear masks. No ; the place 

 to observe nature is where you are ; the walk to take 

 to-day is the walk you took yesterday. You will not 

 find just the same things : both the observed and the 

 observer have changed ; the ship is on another tack 

 in both cases. 



I shall probably never see another just such day as 

 yesterday was, because one can never exactly repeat 

 his observation cannot turn the leaf of the book of 

 life backward, and because each day has characteris- 

 tics of its own. This was a typical March day, clear, 

 dry, hard, and windy, the river rumpled and crumpled, 

 the sky intense, distant objects strangely near ; a day 

 full of strong light, unusual ; an extraordinary light- 

 ness and clearness all around the horizon, as if there 

 were a diurnal aurora streaming up and burning 

 through the sunlight; smoke from the first spring 

 fires rising up in various directions ; a day that win- 

 nowed the air, and left no film in the sky. At night, 

 how the big March bellows did work! Venus was 

 like a great lamp in the sky. The stars all seemed 

 brighter than usual, as if the wind blew them up like 

 burning coals. Venus actually seemed to flare in the 

 wind. 



Each day foretells the next, if one could read the 

 signs ; to-day is the progenitor of to-morrow. When 

 the atmosphere is telescopic, and distant objects stand 

 out unusually clear and sharp, a storm is near. We 

 are on the crest of the wave, and the depression fol- 

 lows quickly. It often happens that clouds are not so 



