274 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



his lofty course, and fold their petals when he is 

 gone. It was his warm glow that awoke to life 

 the dead things of the winter. It was his presence 

 in the northern sky that led a host of pilgrim 

 migrants up the world to worship in the green 

 temples of our woods. It was the fierce heat of 

 his steepest rays that fed the fury of the battle 

 which seethed in every meadow and by each 

 brook ; and though now these things are of the 

 past, we know that, whatever our own fate may 

 be, the coming year will witness them again in all 

 their infinite variety, in all their beauty, as the 

 tide of life wells up to the flood, or ebbs away. 



THE END. 



