FLORIDA DAYS.


brightness I It is as though the star were itself
the dawn, for no one sees it die. Then, from
behind the curve of the world a rim of gold
lifts and widens, and a quivering column of fire
shoots up and down, into the air, and into the
water, which is as luminous as a green crystal.
 That leap up of the sun is as glad as a
 child's laugh; it is as a renewal of .the world's
 youth. The waves crowd and shout to wel-
 come him as he comes stepping gloriously from
 crest to crest, across the sea. A spark, flashing
 through each curving hollow that beckons him
along, lengthens and widens, until a golden
path quivers from the horizon to the shore.
 The moment of distinctness in the gray of
dawn is lost; the island melts into a shining
hfaze,-it is full day in an instant. Shafts of
light wheel and sink into thepwaves; the world
of sky and sea and far-off, T6w-lying shore is
swallowed up in light; the round sun is no
longer a distinct and golden ball, but has be-
come the sky itself. And the spreading sea is
one boundless flash and gleam, smiling and
swinging, shining with a light which does not