TRortbern Xlbts 23 



Five o'clock came vibrating through the air from 

 citywards ; the stars paled before the coming day, or 

 were obscured ; the morning brightened ; a bird, 

 invisible to me, broke on the stillness between the 

 gusts of wind with a sleepy, long-drawn-out " cheep " ; 

 a crow swished past towards the south-west ; dogs 

 began to bark ; lighter and lighter grew the sky in 

 gushes of light it seemed to me ; another day had 

 come. 



And Venus ? There she was, in an oasis of opalescent 

 sky. She was beamless. The dazzling light of her 

 silver lamp was extinguished. She had finished her 

 task. 



NORTHERN LIGHTS 



Warm and placid was the last night but one of 

 September. Away from the city lights, where Nature 

 brooded solemnly silent, a mystical glow suffused the 

 northern horizon long after the sun had departed. 

 Towards eight o'clock a clearly defined luminous arch 

 could be seen stretching from N.E. to N.W., with its 

 crown some fifteen degrees above the sky-line. It was 

 like a star-surmounted silver portal that led to the 

 region of eternal ice and snow. 



Barely had I time to remark upon the beauty of the 

 scene, when an auroral ray shot up over Arcturus in 

 the north-west to level with Corona Borealis. It had 

 no tint ; merely duskily luminous against the greater 

 luminosity on which it was projected. Then other 

 rays darted upward under the Great Bear, whose 

 gigantic figure was feet down towards the horizon. 



From due north the rays worked round to the nor'- 

 nor'-east. One glowing, quivering shaft, indeed, 



