Page:A Picture-book without Pictures and Other Stories (1848).djvu/64



Again the air is clear; I had again material for a sketch; listen to that which I learned from the Moon.

The birds of the polar region flew onward, and the whale swam towards the eastern coast of Greenland. Rocks covered with ice and clouds shut in a valley in which the bramble and whortleberry were in full bloom. The fragrant lichen diffused its odor; the Moon shone faintly; its crescent was pale as the leaf of the water-lily, which, torn from its stalk, has floated for weeks upon the water. The northern-lights burned brightly; their circle was broad, and rays went upwards from them like whirling pillars of fire, ascending through the whole sphere of the