Evening star., 1916-01-02
THE DAWN.

wo the ewes of the lonely watcher
u red lines running level over the
GRAY darkness of the east gave earliest
evidence of the day unseen. Night was
now past for one more time-the night
which he saw sinking back as If sucked
under by some fortunately greater ana
more merciful force than itself
Sucked thus out of his heart seemed
some of its burden of darkness. while
the dawn seemed full of q promise IN
definitely sweet. a promise of what de-
pended on himself for fulhllment AS
he saw the interplay of Natures primal
laws of night and day before him ne
felt even 50 il must be with human life.
IL was like new suggestion TO nm
that night could not keep out the heht
of coming day. Even through drawn
blinds il comes. even through WINDOWS
of the heart veiled by pain, by tears
the light penetrates.
The man stood there. himself like
one of the black shadows lying on the
outer edge of night; like IT, loath 10
vanish into the familiar prison OF
sunken darkness He had. too, the shy
feeling of a deer startled at its own
too great nearness to the coming won
der of the sunrise. What was becoming
of the darkness. of the strength OF its
grip on his heart. on all the surround
ing familiar objects of his life, on the
very events themselves which had so
long loomed through his night. visible
only by their greater darkness and
their too definite shape?
Could it be Wis heart that. in imita-
the invisible process. going through
some metamorphosis by which its
identity would be finally dissolved and
lost?
Fear caugh1 him fore a moment and
almost an involuntary clinging TO the
old shadows and sorrows. Then he re-
called that no object. no curve nor
height nor distance in the natural
by the interplay of day and night.
Their aspects alone were made differ
ent and given new natures and posi-
bilities, made into new sources of
beauty. He need not feel his identity
lost, nor, indeed. call himself wan
derer amid strange surroundings
The familiar objects circumstances,
events, were still about him In his life
as well as in nature. Night. he realized.
would many times again clothe his
heart and them in darkness. But now.
,how their terror fell away from them
how much less under the evil spell
they seemed: how nearly they re-
sponded to the rosy glow: not stretch
ing too eagerly out, but taking on
TRANQUILITY what new beauty the grad
| ual light was bringing to them.
They themselves, then. his grief. the
events that had bereft him. the cir
cumstances that stabbed him. were all
not SO inimical in themselves. His
heart had given them the atmosphere
of night, through which they had
loomed into threatening shapes and
taken on their appalling characters OF
unconauerable woe.
| Bnt what of the cause of his grief?
Was that. TOO. being transfigured under
the dawn? What dawn could there be
for him, in truth? Why was he stand
ling at watch. confusing things. facts
and ideas in this sIeepless fashion? Was
the sun really about to rise right up
Through his heart. and out over that
beautiful eastern atmosphere of light :
ening rose and fading gray?
| He expanded as he felt the thought
his dulled eyes diiating with expecta :
ttion Of the far-rising light. A fresh :
ness from the new dawn winds
stirred through his veins. The stupor
OF the nights of sorrow was dissolving
like snow from his limbs, and vigor
came in like the creeping, certain tide
| through shore channels in the rosy
colored marshlands far off under the
| wide horizon.
A shaft OF gold pierced through. 1t
was the actual day at last. Virgin gold