IIo LHistory of Gutta-Percha Willie.

 

however, as in the convolutions of a mazy dance of
victory, rather than brandished and hurtled as in the
tumult of the battle.

Another vision that would greatly delight him
was a far more common one: the moon wading
through clouds blown slowly across the sky—espe-
cially if by an upper wind, unfelt below. Now
she would be sinking helpless in a black faint—
growing more and more dim, until at last she dis-
appeared from the night—was blotted from the
face of nature, leaving only a dim memorial light
behind her; now her soul would come into her
again, and she was there once more—doubtful
indeed: but with a slow, solemn revival, her light
would grow and grow, until the last fringe of the
great cloud swung away from off her face, and she
dawned out stately and glorious, to float fora space
in queenly triumph across a lake of clearest blue.
And Willie was philosopher enough to say to him-
self, that all this fainting and reviving, all this de-
feat and conquest, were but appearances ; that the
moon was her own bright self all the time, basking
contented in the light of her sun, between whom
and her the cloud could not creep, only between
her and Willie.

But what delighted him most of all was to catch
the moon dreaming.. That was when the old
moon, tumbled over on her back, would come
floating up the east, like a little boat on the rising |