310 
THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
make to the grandeur of the aurora as it now 
appeared. The rapid alternations of crimson, 
blue, green, and yellow in the sky were re¬ 
flected so vividly from the white surface of the 
snow that the whole world seemed now steeped 
in blood, and then quivering in the atmosphere 
of pale, ghastly green, through which shone 
the unspeakable glories of the mighty crimson 
and yellow arches. But the end was not yet. 
As we watched with upturned faces the swift 
ebb and flow of these great celestial tides of 
colored lights, the last seal of the glorious rev¬ 
elation was suddenly broken, and both arches 
were simultaneously shivered into a thousand 
parallel perpendicular bars, every one of which 
displayed in regular order, from top to bottom, 
the seven primary colors of the solar spectrum. 
From horizon to horizon there now stretched 
two vast curving bridges of colored bars, across 
which we almost expected to see, passing and 
repassing, the bright inhabitants of another 
world. Amid cries of astonishment and ex¬ 
clamation, “ God have mercy !” from the start¬ 
led natives, these innumerable bars began to 
move, with a swift dancing motion, back and 
forth along the whole extent of both arches, 
