II 



SKY 



ONE thing you cannot deprive us of 

 entirely when you put up your houses 

 and factories and churches around us, and 

 that is the sky. You may poison the air 

 for us close to the earth with your smudge, 

 gas, vapor, dust, and evil cookery ; but we 

 can always look out from our wells of brick 

 and see the air away up where it is un- 

 tainted a sheet of sapphire or turquoise, 

 with pearl or silver fretting ; iriscent, too, 

 for there is a surprising amount of color 

 in clouds. 



The other day one of the grandest moun- 

 tain-ranges above the world was revealed 

 after the passage of a hurrying mist. The 

 Himalayas boast no such peaks as the af- 

 ternoon sun fell upon when the fog floor 

 had been rafted off on a western wind. 



