"EVER SO MANY BEAUTIFUL THINGS."


"There are ever so many beautiful things up in the sky, mother!" said
little Eddie, as he sat in his mother's lap, leaning his head upon her
encircling arm.

The clouds had gathered about the horizon, and assumed many beautiful
and fantastic shapes. Some of them were gorgeously coloured with the
rays of the departing sun, and were shaded from the most delicate rose
to the darkest, richest crimson. As the sun receded farther and
farther behind the green hills, they grew darker and darker, and the
imaginative boy had seen fancied ships with their sails spread;
steam-vessels with clouds of smoke rolling from their chimneys;
mountains piled upon mountains; trees, birds, and many other wondrous
things which filled his infant mind with admiration.

Soon the stars twinkled forth, and they awoke a new interest. At first
they appeared one by one, as if timidly venturing to look down upon
our beautiful planet, and when fully assured that the king of day had
disappeared, they came forth faster and more numerously, till the
whole heavens were bespangled with their glittering brightness. Then
their companion, the moon, came slowly up, shining with a soft and
mellow light, a new beauty in the "blue wilderness of interminable
air."