28 AT THE NORTH OF BEARCAMP WATER. 
upper and larger belt of light made a sharp 
bend inward a few degrees above the horizon, 
and to a less defined extent the smaller arch 
was similarly shaped. The effect of this curve 
at the base of the two bows was very remarka¬ 
ble, for it destroyed the image of an arch and 
created the impression that one was looking into 
the inner curve of a ring which surrounded the 
earth, just as the rings of Saturn encircle that 
planet. Gradually the lower ring faded, the 
upper one settled down closer and closer to 
Chocorua; masses of electric energy seemed to 
dart across the eastern sky, where Sirius and 
the fair Pleiades gleamed, to the moon and 
Mars sailing serenely on their westward way. 
Behind Pequawket the lowest line of sky grew 
white. The dawn was coming, and, as though 
to avoid it, the hurrying beams and flashing 
waves of aurora moved faster and faster until in 
their dimness they could scarce be seen. Snowy 
mists raised their phantom forms from the lake 
and floated eastward to meet the sun. A whip¬ 
poorwill sang his last song to the night, and as 
the glow of day grew more real a hermit thrush 
told in its heartfelt music the joy of life at the 
birth of a new period of labor. 
A scrap of mist which trailed over the forest 
just at the foot of one of the ridges of Chocorua 
was the spirit of a lonely lake rising to do horn- 
