Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 197, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1910 — The ONLOOKER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The ONLOOKER

by WILBUR D. NESBIT

Night is a gentle shepherdess Who guards the little stars; •« We hear the rustle of her dress When she stands at the bars. Though some folks say it is the breeM That drifts from hills afar, It is the night’s soft draperies As she calls in each star. The blue sky is the wondrous fold Where spreads the field of sleep With blossomings of white and gold; The little stars are’ sheep, And one by one they , come at dusk To wait until the dawn, Wbile glder-scent and mint and musk Are ever drifting on. The little stars roam far by day— Some leave the arching skies To swinkle in a wondrous way In little children’s eyes. And some go straying over seas To dance amid the foam, But with the honeytladen bees The-little stars come home. First one by east and one by west Comes climbing up the sky, And one much littler than the rest Goes high, and high, and high— But home they come, both one and all. And if we watch we see How some will slip and slide and fall And from the flock be free. But after while they all grow still. And blink and wink and dream; The trees are silent on the hill, A hush is on the stream, And all the world is deep in rest But night keeps watch, for they Must scamper to the east and west When comes the light of day.