THE FALL OFj THE YEAE 



CHAPTER I 



THE CLOCK STRIKES ONE 



" The clock strikes one, 



And all is still around the house ! 



But in the gloom 

 A little mouse 



Goes creepy-creep from room to room." 



iHE clock of the year strikes one! — ■ 

 not in the dark silent night of winter, 

 but in the hot light of midsummer. 



It is a burning July day, — one 

 o'clock in the afternoon of the year, 

 — and all is still around the fields 

 and woods. All is still. All is hushed. 

 But yet, as I listen, I hear things in 

 the dried grass, and in the leaves 

 overhead, going " creepy-creep," as you have heard 

 the little mouse in the silent night. 



I am lying on a bed of grass in the shade of a 

 great oak tree, as the clock of the year strikes one. 

 I am all alone in the quiet of the hot, hushed day. 

 Alone ? Are you alone in the big upstairs at mid- 

 night, when you hear the little mouse going " creepy- 



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