AT PEEP OF DAY 



can divide the glittering curtain they form as 

 they fly round and round in songful circles; he 

 can take them up in his hands and gather them 

 as he would a bunch of grapes, for to-day in 

 their gladness, possessing nothing but full of 

 faith in the future, they will submit to everything 

 and injure no one, provided only they be not sep- 

 arated from the queen who bears that future 

 within her." * 



But the golden hours of the early morning 

 have been speeding as we talked, and the time 

 is not far distant when shrill whistles and 

 hoarse gongs will arouse the workingman to the 

 knowledge of the fact that day has begun in the 

 great, indispensable world of human labor. 

 Soon streets not far from this quiet grove will re- 

 sound with the tread of hastily passing feet, and 

 the rushing tide of human travel will have set 

 in. Flowers will bloom as bravely as now, but 

 birds will become comparatively shy and silent; 

 yet every now and then some heart in the great 

 throng less preoccupied or more in tune than oth- 

 ers will take note of sweet sounds and fragrant 

 flowers, fresh trees and limpid skies, and will 

 praise God for His beautiful world ; but you and 



* Maeterlinck, in The Life of the Bee. 



