Il6 THE FRIENDSHIP OF NATURE 



Gemini, the smiling twins, walk in the 

 Milky Way. In the northern sky the 

 star- tailed Ursa Major points to Polaris, 

 and southeastward Bootes leads his 

 hounds, Asterion and Chara, as he 

 drives the great star herds, almost touch- 

 ing with his spear Corona Borealis, the 

 crown that Bacchus gave to Ariadne. 



Under the stars the world seems 

 closed, outline, not substance, and the 

 clear, frosty sky a thing apart, of long 

 ago, the region of gods and goddesses. 

 When the earth, waking again, breathes 

 gently, and the faint haze dims the 

 electric winter clearness, Pan stirs in 

 his sleep and raises to his lips his 

 pipe, all choked with snow, and it 

 gives forth a crackling purr, the first 

 peep of the marsh hylode, and at this 

 sound the sky draws again towards the 

 earth and becomes a tributary. 



Go out into the March night. The 



