had silently taken place. 
The mist continued to veil the sky, and it clung to the tops of 
the hills ; but, like the rising curtain of a stage, it had rolled 
halfway up from their bases, revealing a great part of the sea 
and shore, and half of a cliff on the opposite side of the valley; 
this, in itself of a deep red, was now smitten by the rays of the 
setting sun, and glowed over the waters a splendor of carmine. 
As we gazed, the vaporous curtain sank upon the shore, and 
the sun sank under the waves, and the sad gray evening 
closed in the weeping night, and clouds and darkness swathed 
the weary earth. For doubtless the earth needs its night as 
well as the creatures that live thereon. 

In the morning the rain had ceased, but the clouds remained. 
But they were high in the heavens now, and, like a departing 
, revealed the outline and form which had appeared 
before as an enveloping vapor of universal and shapeless evil. 
The mist was now far enough off to be seen and thought about. 
It was clouds now,  no longer mist and rain. And I thought 
how at length the evils of the world would float away, and we 
should see what it was that made it so hard