2 WINTER SUNSHINE 



the horizon wall does not so often have the appear- 

 ance of having just been washed and scrubbed down. 

 There is more depth and visibility to the open air, 

 a stronger infusion of the Indian Summer element 

 throughout the year, than is found farther north. 

 The days are softer and more brooding, and the 

 nights more enchanting. It is here that Walt 

 Whitman saw the full moon 



"Pour down Night's nimbus floods," 

 as any one may see her, during her full, from Octo- 

 ber to May. There is more haze and vapor in the 

 atmosphere during that period, and every particle 

 seems to collect and hold the pure radiance until 

 the world swims with the lunar outpouring. Is 

 not the full moon always on the side of fair weather ? 

 I think it is Sir William Herschel who says her 

 influence tends to dispel the clouds. Certain it is 

 her beauty is seldom lost or even veiled in this 

 southern or semi-southern clime. 



It is here also the poet speaks of the 



" Floods of the 3'ellow gold of the gorgeous, 

 Indolent sinking sun, burning, expanding the air," 



a description that would not apply with the same 

 force farther north, where the air seems thinner and 

 less capable of absorbing and holding the sunlight. 

 Indeed, the opulence and splendor of our climate, 

 at least the climate of our Atlantic seaboard, cannot 

 be fully appreciated by the dweller north of the 

 thirty-ninth parallel. It seemed as if I had never 

 seen but a second-rate article of sunlight or moon- 

 light until I had taken up my abode in the National 



