AFTERGLOW 



THE time was late autumn. All day the spendthrift sun 

 had flooded the prairies with splendor. Like a huge sphere 

 of red flame he slowly settled in the far-away west. A 

 silence that made one's heart throbbings audible brooded 

 over the prairie meadows. No fleck of cloud was on the 

 flawless sky. Here and there a stellar flame had burned 

 through the overhanging veil of blue. It was a time to wait 

 and watch in heart-hushed wonder. ' No whisper of wind 

 ruffled the stillness. The noiseless flow of evening twilight 

 spread in silence everywhere. 



A faint flame glimmered across the western sky, and 

 light lingered as if loath to leave the world in shadow. It 

 was like a lover throwing kisses back to one from whom he 

 must be parted. Almost white at first, then orange-yellow, 

 then red like iron that feels the fire still, then deep scarlet, 

 growing deeper, till it dies amid the darkness and the dew. 

 Then the whole blue field of the sky broke into astral bloom. 



A lonely watcher read this meaning in the farewell 

 gleam of the afterglow: 



Let the light of thy life linger long with the living, 

 When the sun of thy life shall set in the evening; 

 Let the words of thy song sound after the shadows 

 Have folded the singer away to his rest. 



91 



