Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/296

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long-lost wanderer of the heavens with loud demonstrations of joy.

And now we were bathing in the atmosphere of other days. The friend of all hopeful associations had come back again to put a new glow into our hearts. He had returned after an absence of one hundred and twenty-six days to revive a slumbering world; and as I looked upon his face again, after this long interval, I did not wonder that there should be men to bow the knee and worship him and proclaim him "The eye of God." The parent of light and life everywhere, he is the same within these solitudes. The germ awaits him here as in the Orient; but there it rests only through the short hours of a summer night, while here it reposes for months under a sheet of snows. But after a while the bright sun will tear this sheet asunder, and will tumble it in gushing fountains to the sea, and will kiss the cold earth, and give it warmth and life; and the flowers will bud and bloom, and will turn their tiny faces smilingly and gratefully up to him, as he wanders over these ancient hills in the long summer. The very glaciers will weep tears of joy at his coming. The ice will loose its iron grip upon the waters, and will let the wild waves play in freedom. The reindeer will skip gleefully over the mountains to welcome his coming, and will look longingly to him for the green pastures. The sea-fowls, knowing that he will give them a resting-place for their feet on the rocky islands, will come to seek the moss-beds which he spreads for their nests; and the sparrows will come on his life-giving rays, and will sing their love songs through the endless day.