OCR Text |
Show FALSE DOWN. There is one hour of the night between midnight and morning 2 o'clock to be 1 accurate when all nature Is astir. The cowboys and the shepherds and the old country folk tell us about it. This hour is heralded by the rooster crowing, not this time to announce the hour of dawn, but as though he were a watchman speeding the course of night. Cowboys assert that the entire herd of cattle wake up and walk about and lie down and rest In a new lair. The sheep rouse themselves and crop the grass, the herds stir in their nests, the cowboys' horses and the shepherd's dog open their eyes to see that all is well. The shepherd and the cowboys open their eyes, too, to look for a moment at the stars and become for the time being mere animals in nature's flock; yet there Is no accounting for the Inaudible summons, the gentle touch of nature that recalls all the sleepers to life at precisely the same hour. Even to those deepest read in these arcana this rhythmical rhyth-mical nightly resurrection remains a mystery. |