The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1896-09-17
A VACATION lDYLl.
DONE INTO PROSE BY MEMO"
(Copyrighted.)

=
that game of progressive euchre
or the sensuous air OF ball ll-room
has more charms than an hour
ramble by the restless waves, Ito
such one Slaughter Beach holds
out no inducements. But to him in
whom still courses the good, red
blood of kinship to Nature, this, lit
tie beach gives refreshment and In
spiration.
BY day the clouds play shadow
dances over the great sheet OF Della
ware Bay and along the glorious
curve of the shore from Sand Point
to "The Cedars" and beyond. The
green Of the sparse grasses and the
light brown of the sands stretch on
and on until they are blent into one
low indefinitely tinted outline that
shades off gradually into the moy-
ing waters over-celered. as they are,
with all the Kaleidoscope possibili-
ties of varying shades of green and
gray and blue.
As the day draws to its close, the
eyes are raised to the sunset glories
of the silent skies. Upward and
downward we look these masses OF
color that so stately glide, reflect
ing back the rays OF the dear de-
lparted
"sun OF this great world both eye and SOUL
are of the restless ocean isself,
throbbing uneasily at our feet.
Transmitted and glorified, the ocean
below decks the heavens above Just
as the advancing and receding, new
er motionless mass of our common
humanity gives of its own substance
and gladly that the perfected ones
may shine down upon 1t some OF the
glory of which the whole mass is
capable.
At night. without tree or house to
break the outlook, and freed from
| all incongrucus sounds to mar the
vocal silence of the stars singing in
their courses, there bursts upon the
vision of the eastward gazer, "A won
drous view of the pedigality of crea-
! tive effort in stellar space. In the
presence of these thickly studded
points of light, electrically brigh
| that have swung and glided, circled
and guided for ages before our puny
advent. the soul, by the scene made
to supernal thought receptive, sinks
into abject humility at the appalling
sense Of its insignificance, then rises
the triumphant humility at the pow.
er within il to hear and understand
the voice of God.
And when at last the soul has TAX
en- n surfeit of the beauties that sift
through its windows, and the eyes
grow heavy with sleep, the last con-
scious impression through the clos.
ing easements of intelligence is Civ
en- by the kinly CLEAN of the vigil
keeping stars shining i'll through n
four-square frame the last sound,
the gently swelling and receding
laibilant monotone of the ripples,
mingled with the love.lorn signing
of the breeze, or possibly the dull
grating roar of the angry waves,
Ilashed into fury by the spirit Of the
storm as it whistles and shrieks the
last feeling the peace that the noisy
lefty can neither give nor ever fully
take away the last thought, thank
fulness
Then when the curtains of the
night are slowly aud silently drawn
aside and the light of new day
shines through upon n slumberous
world, the soothed senses glide back
, into consciousness. The faint aroma,
Of the wet sands and of the salty
sea weed gratities the nostrils; the
nourishmcnt for the body IS sur.
, rendered from the plenteous stores
= of the sea the ear yields itself once
, more to the somnoient sounds OF the
, night continued on with the day but
now occasionally broken by the
voices oil the cottagers; the appleca'
tive eye sweeps with full and linger.
ing glances around the noble spread
j of the watery horizon, or turns &c
;. rest for few ecstatic moments up
/ on the intense Greenery OF the marsl
= fringed by the distant woods, dimly
: outlined mt one moment through {
bridal-veil of mist. at another dark
Q ly silhouetted against sky of me
i tallic clearness feeling is swallow
!. ed up in thought, and that though
q is supreme appreciation OF th'
power OF Nature to uplitt the sou
that is not ease.hardened against it
=, Divine impressiveness.
- Here he who doeth wisely. doetl
, little; and he who doeth much, doetl
- ill. 1t is an eight. cottaged oasis .
"a lDuOlclCc III IL WOllu tuub lOO Ire
y quently seems to us an arid, disar
i. pointing, unproductive decert of ei
!. fort. But Just as the rich juices O
" the grape are yielded only under tn
D strain and stress of the wine-pess
SO so this spot sacred TO revivifyin
e. idleness gives up fully of its treas
II ures only to the one who wrenche
10 it all toward himself with tn
:, strength of a desperation born fror
~ n consciousness of burden and pres
b. sure, toll and exhaustion. Th
steady idler with no plans, and tn
vigorous worker with many woul
c. find the hours unutterably burdel
OF some, because UNMARRIED with til
~ gaudy display and hollow anus,
ments of fashionable waterin,
m place. Yet time does not hang hea
he ily here. The hours run swiftly l
=, though spent in absolute inactioi
- or given to the enjoyment of the fe
III |ounucpmontS that tho con itGolf fu