AT PEEP OF DAY 



that there is a sudden and decided falling off in 

 the chorus, a very perceptible lessening in the 

 great volume of song? 



I realize now that I had almost unconsciously 

 arranged for myself a sort of forecast of this sun- 

 rise. As the monarch's earliest heralds I had 

 looked for long, slender, rose-colored streaks, 

 which were to grow and grow until the heavens 

 became one effulgence, while the river was to have 

 caught and held the glory till it vanished before 

 the sun's full glow. 



But instead of this, without any intimation of 

 his coming other than the vanishing grayness, the 

 glorious red ball suddenly looks out through the 

 rapidly retreating mists. 



Though nature's laws are in a sense inviolable, 

 though seed-time and harvest, sunrise and sunset 

 will succeed each other as long as the world lasts, 

 yet the great mother has constant surprises in 

 store for us, and no one can anticipate her moods 

 or her movements where her fixed laws are not 

 concerned. The individuality that characterizes 

 even the most obscure of her creatures is one of 

 her own greatest attributes ; and it has been said 

 that, during all the ages in which the sun has run 

 his course, the sky-settings have not been identical 



