MIDSUMMER MOONLIGHT 109 



to horizon, and as the day wanes it gilds all sor- 

 did things with the glow of romance. By it we 

 get the clearer vision and have thoughts of the 

 unseen things which are eternal. The trouble 

 with sordid souls, if such there be, is that they 

 have never seen enough sunsets. People who 

 live in places or palaces where these are never 

 seen have need to be born of noble fathers and 

 sweet mothers, to be carefully nurtured in hope 

 and aspiration and belief, or the world is the 

 worse for them. 



Long after the sun had gone and the evening 

 was cool with unclotted dew, the fires of the melt- 

 ing burned high in the upper air and the gold 

 that had been thin vapor seemed to condense into 

 clouds that glowed copper-red with the molten 

 metal and cooled and dropped into the distant 

 hills. No wonder the miners go ever westward 

 for the precious gold, to Colorado and Nevada 

 and California, to Sitka and the Copper River, to 

 Anvil City and the Nome beach and across the 

 straits to Siberia. Never a clear night falls but 

 they see the alchemy at work and the precious 

 element going down in dust and nuggets and 

 wide lodes behind the peaks and into the canons 

 just beyond. 



