Page:Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan.djvu/167

Rh Broad daylight, with a sense of weariness! Mine eyes were closed, but I was not asleep, My hand was in my father's, and I felt His presence near me. Thus we often past In silence, hour by hour. What was the need Of interchanging words when every thought That in our hearts arose, was known to each, And every pulse kept time? Suddenly there shone A strange light, and the scene as sudden changed. I was awake:—It was an open plain Illimitable,—stretching, stretching—oh, so far! And o'er it that strange light,—a glorious light Like that the stars shed over fields of snow In a clear, cloudless, frosty winter night, Only intenser in its brilliance calm. And in the midst of that vast plain, I saw, For I was wide awake,—it was no dream, A tree with spreading branches and with leaves Of divers kinds,—dead silver and live gold,