Nevada County picayune., 1889-01-16
MOODS OF THE SEA.
 BY KTV. SUMMER W. STEPHENS. "How miss thee. summer ocean. Miss the thunder'o thy roar. Miss the music of thy pillows
When Inc sea shall he no more. !"

" 'iiN ciibiNo ol thN optiitihS oN' and watched it's changeful moods :: Then you have seen it as it lay silent beneath the shining summer sky, "a sea of glass like unto crystal" :" There it lay, heaving gently with the pulsations of its mighty heart, the vessels on it's bosom floating idle as apainted ship upon painted ocean, or swinging lazily at their anchors, moved only by the ebbng and flow ing tide, their shadows lying scarce rutfled on the silvery plain. And then perhaps you have whispered to yourself, ah, the sea is to-day for me q type of the calms of life: of these seasons sweet and rare which come into human lives; those hours of rest and stiffness, when the troubled waves of life seem for a little time to be quiet and at rest, and there is peace and serenity in heart and life, when the burdens carried on the bosom rest easily and painlessly.
 Or have you stood upon the strand when the sun shone brightly down on the glitterng ocean and the sea shimmered and sparkled joyously, and as you have watched the waves as they came gleefully running to- ward you and laughingly throwing their silvery spray at your feet, you have listened to the "multitudinous laughter of the waves,' and the thought has come to you of life's joys, of its hours of mirth, and you have said the sea in this it's joy is fitting symbol of the hours of glad ness that come even into the saddest of lives.
 Again, in what other and different moods does one behold the ocean? l have seen the clouds "come rolling up out of the west" they have swept athwart the sky and hid the shining of the sun, and then have I seen the shadows run darkling and cold over the surface of the watery main. And as I listened to the song of the waves, how changed seemed the burden of that song. The laugh ter had all died out of it, it was pitched in a minor key, it sound ed like monotonous moan; and so Is one reminded of the gray days in human lives when the sun seems ob- scured and the brightness of life gone out of the "still sad music of hu- manity," it's sorrowful and swelling cadence.
 Recall another mood of the sea it is when the waves appear restless and ill at ease; how uneasily Y do they toss up and down, and move to and fro as if possessed and troubled by the demon of unrest; and at such time does there not come to the watcher on the beach, the remem- hrance of mans restlessness and dis quiet, his frequent discontent and uneasiness! and perhaps there in also suggested thought of many who toss feyerishly on beds of pain or move uneasily and wearily on fev- cred couchos,
 And then on a day when there is Surging surf and the pillows haste toward the strand as if in a furious race for the shore, in their hurry heating and breaking against one an- other, there enters into the heart of the observer a recollection of the way men race madly for wealth or fame or position, and how in their eager haste and impetuous hurry, they jostle against and ofter trample upon and tumble over one another.
 There is still another mood of the sea. Witness it from the verge of your high cliff. The fierce spirit of the storm is abroad to work it's wild will. Hear the hoarse cries of the pillows, the strange sagas of the sea See the foam crested waves as they run unanimously toward the land, as if driven andl ashed into fury by the scourges of the relentless wind , Behold how the waves lash high on the rocky pronontory, rolling In sue cessive surges against the stony bar riers, as often to fall back tattered and broken. And now, as you sec the rocking of the tempest and list to lhe hoWl oi the Storm King, is there not suggested to youi soul yet another of life's phases? Has there not rashed in upon you a thought of the storms of fife, since no life is d. together free from tempest and strifeE On some the gales of adversity seem