The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-01-15
TOP OF THE MORNING.

accident or necessity have most of us who do I'M
derstand discovered the ecstacy of the dry-spring
and the sunrise.
The mornings prime, with its fresh. sweet hours
Of tonic breezes and untainted air, the inauguration
If body and spirit, the impulse to start with the
birth Of the day to do all things well until the sun
down brings it rest, and happy reverie and depths
Of incommunicable dreams'-if you go a-waIking
in tHe top of the morning" ready to be guided by
nature all these wholesome influences will come to
YOU. and every hundred yards of the way will find
YOU stepping out more jauntiy and with lighter
heart.
Beautiful is the hour of dawn in springtide
when all the world is young and every little plant
beside your path Is tip-toe to WOO the sum- Rare
" beautiful are the first hours of September DAYS
also when you may drink deeply of the wine of
life in the sweet, cold rush of the most bracing
breezes which the round of the years mornings
supply.
The cocks have been Growing for an hour. and
the roof-top starlings clamorous for almost as long
a time. They tell you your house is prison when
the night has flown. Lift the latch and come out
with me while the east is opaescent, and let us
greet the sun.
Stretching away everywhere from your thresh-
old are the miles on miles of lush-leaved country
of farm lands divided by full-grown hedgerows, of
woodland frnges and still sleeping hamets of gray
church towers, where the bats and owls of night are
already back at home. The wild denizens of the
day are beginning to stir, and while you gaze across
the silent countryside at this early hour thousand
thousand creatures of the night are creeping full
fed to their resting places.
few deep breaths taken for the very delight
of breathing, and you step down the garden path
through the white and crimson phloxes and the
golden harpaiums, and dahlias brilliant in their
dew-washed purity, and out into the lane The
breeze watts you scent of apples from the or
chaTd. All! you viii MUNICH an apple till YOU get
into your stride. The heavy-headed plum trees are
full of purple bloom and thus early there are wasps
at that luscious banquet though their flight is slow
and laundering, for they are half benumbed with
the chill of the night.
Along the lane geometrical spiders webs are
stretched widely across every cleft in the hedgerow
vegetation and In the center of each waits the fat
ezpectant maker of the snare. Well she knows
where to spread her sken meshes to obtain an easy
living at this season. The place where the morn
ing sunshine will fall and draw the chilled flies to
It's warmth, the spot where numbed insects will
tumble If they sip too long in the evening at the
flowers above-these are her September hunting
grounds. And by the appearance of her sleek, pat
termed body she does not fare badly.
But IS the finest piece of jewelry in the world
more beautiful than any one of these large wheel
webs in this morning hour, picked out along all its
slender flaments with glistening diamonds of dew2
Here are gems of the first water in very truth and
before we leave the lane for the rolling common
the sun climbs clear and sets them all afre.
Now it is fairy world indeed, for every dew
beaded grass blade and fern frond messy tuft and
dripping bramble arm, is flashing the elemental
colors. There are a thousand points Of light in
every square yard of the hedgerow
With the coming of the sun the breeze gains
strength, and the stratus cloud hanging low over
the wet level of the water meadows, a curtain of
roseate and pearl but few minutes ago, begins to
move upward and fade over the slope of golden
subble field. That bank of cloud brought the flying
IL,
their last meal beneath it. Now already the birds
are slmming over the same ground this morning,
and close at hand lark is carrying his song to the
sky The day is wide awake; but as yet we have
not seen human form.
We tread the springy turf of the common, and
me blood courses faster the step quickens. We are
III me Joyous swing of the morning walk now. Like
Old Hazlitt the tramp, it is hard if we cannot
start some game. And why should there be any re-
Sfamt Why should we not laugh and run and
leap and sing for joy?
Ahead, where the rioting bracken has mounted
nigh among the dark furze cumps and made the
rack almost green tunnel, rabbit is sitting
alert IN the midst of the way. A shout of our song
settles his doubts and he pops with faunt of
EIlte INTO the dewy tangle. There robins here,
demonstrating away in song the precious morning
minutes There is a chafinch splashing on the
lHafge OF heather-fringed pool. The subdued au-
yumn note of thrush is raised in clump of oaks
T., llles near az nand. SOOty-WlngeQ blackblfdS
guae ehattering across the path and the yellow
MANNERS are beginning their everlasting jingle.
How lovely are the flowers just after the sun
dS dried the dew from their faces. The golden
e"A"eeds the little blue scabious, the field scabi-
ou swinging its big discs of mauve in the breeze,
.Ie new poppy that has just shaken out the crum-
les m its scarlet dress, the delicate pink of the
@amble blossom, the veined azure of the harebell
iGs"lng on Its wiry stem, the cream and pink COB
,gS OF the honeysuckIe, the radiant ragwort, the
uFe mint beside the marsh that tells its fragrant
presence in every puff of wind, the toadfax guard
ls me nectar in Its sulphur spur with close-shut
ogof OF orange-all are farest to see in the pure
'T and clear shine of ''the top of the morning"
Now we enter the wood and crackle over the
Ieecn-lnast through It's shadowy silence, and are
aap.9 thinking. Later out into the deep lanes
rSa-' 70 find the butterflies astir There are white
W, wings thekerng through the sunbeams, and here
peacock butterfly has spread his rich damask while
~ probes with prodigious tongue deep among the
nople norets of lnapweed. Meadow browns and
ppers are flying, too; and the humble bees,
= mere is much for these buzzing bohemians to do