18 SOME AUTUMN DAYS IN IOWA 
sleep beneath the snows until the spring sunshine 
of the ressurrection day breaks in all its beauty. 
Far across the western prairie, the sun sinks 
in a shimmering sea of amber and gold. Slowly 
the glory fades to gray. “The darkening air 
thrills with a sense of the triumphing night.” By- 
and-by Venus glows in the western sky like a beau¬ 
tiful evening lamp. One by one the constellations 
come — “the sweet influence of the Pleiades,” 
Andromeda and Pegasus, the Hyades with Alde- 
baran, Canis Major with Sirius, whose fervid reign 
is over. The darkness deepens; it is night: 
“Night with her train of stars, 
And her great gift of sleep.” 
