JOIN A SUNRISE CLUB. 



Join a sunrise club? as is proposed in 

 Birds and Nature for January. Of 

 course I will. I have for years belonged 

 to one of two members — my daughter 

 and myself. Now we will transfer our 

 membership to the new club that is to 

 have members all over the country. 



Some of our winter sunsets here in 

 Nebraska are glorious. I am especially 

 fond of looking at them through the 

 thousand interlaced branches of the leaf- 

 less trees. One can study tree forms and 

 sunsets in the same picture. I wonder 

 that every person is not a sunset ob- 

 server. But some people are sunset 

 blind, and some rarely ever look at the 

 heavens on starry nights. I sometimes 

 meet people who lament the fact that 

 they cannot go to Colorado and see the 

 mountains, of which they hear such 

 glowing accounts. I tell them that I do 

 not pity them at all so long as they do 

 not care to gaze upon the most glorious 

 sight which mortal man is permitted to 

 see — the starry heavens. They who do 

 not appreciate the stars and the sunsets 

 would soon tire of the mountains. 



Our summer sunsets are also glorious, 

 but I miss some of them on account of 

 the trees around my house. I sometimes 

 get on my wheel and go out of town 

 simply to see the sunset. Trees are 

 nice, but they often hide from us some- 

 thing nicer. When the towns of Colo- 

 rado were new, twenty-five years ago, 

 we could see the mountains from all our 

 west doors and windows. Now in those 

 same towns the people must go out into 

 the street, or even out of town, if they 

 would see the mountains in summer. 



But, say, let us have another club — a 

 Sunrise Club. It may be asking too 

 much to make it operative for the whole 

 year, so' we will call it a sunrise club for 

 May and June. Those are the bird 

 months of the year, the months when 

 some of us are out before sunrise morn- 

 ing after morning, to watch the birds 

 and to hear their wonderful concerts. 

 Some of the pleasantest memories of my 

 life are of early morning trips on my 

 wheel to a certain grove in the edge of 

 town. On those trips I have seen many 

 a new bird — new to me — and many a 

 glorious sunrise. 



Somehow birds and the rising of the 

 sun fit into each other beautifully. 



There is something inspiring and ex- 

 hilarating about sunrise that is not 

 found in sunsets. The air is more free 

 from dust; one's body and mind, yes, 

 and soul, too, are in better mood to en- 

 joy the sight ; one is more pleased to wel- 

 come the sun than to bid him good 

 night; the birds seem, to think so and 

 they give joyous welcome to the orb of 

 day; all nature is awakening; a great 

 thing is happening; a new day, fresh 

 from the hands of its Maker, is being 

 born. All hail, thou new creation ! Wel- 

 come, thou glorious orb of day ! Let 

 me join with the birds in singing thy 

 praise. Thou dost flood my soul with 

 joy even as thou dost flood the earth 

 with light. Yes, let us have a sunrise 

 club for May and June, except perhaps 

 the cloudy and stormy mornings when 

 even .the birds seem to lie abed. Who 



will jom 



RosELLE Theodore Cross. 



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