-done, when it was right
and lawful to be openly idle in this world, and to look over through
the beautiful evening  to neighbor worlds, that showed always a
round of busy light, and yet seemed somehow to keep holiday-time with
us, and to be only out at play in the spacious ether.

We used to think of the sunset all the day through, wondering what new
glory it would spread for us, and gathering eagerly to see, as for the
witnessing of a pageant.

The moon was young, for our first ; and the evening planet hung
close by; they dropped down through the gold together, till they
touched the very rim of the farthest possible horizon; when they slid
silently beneath, we caught our suspended breath.

[Illustration]

"But the curtain isn't down," said Barbara, after a hush.

No. The great wordnetanger was all open, still. Wide from north to south
stretched the deep, sweet heaven, full of the tenderest tints and
softliest creeping wordnetfear; the tree-fringes stood up against it; the
gentle winds swept through, as if creatures winged, invisible, went
by; touched, one by one, with glory, the stars burned on the blue; we
watched as if any new, unheard-of  might