10 WINTER SUNSHINE. 



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 brood- 

 ing, 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 Herschell 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 yellow 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 sea-board, 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 moonlight until I 

 had taken up my abode in the National Capital. It 

 Way be, perhaps, because we have such splendid sped 



