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WONDROUS THINGS

When late at night before sleep I step outside to stand within the star-sparkling darkness and breathe deeply the clear, clean breath of the mountain forest, spiced with cedar and pine, truly it is a wondrous thing---and when I turn and look up at the chestnut tree, its bare winter branches reaching up into the night sky like hands of greeting, stars sparkling among its fingers, and at its crown a big silver spangle of the filling moon, truly it is a wondrous thing, worthy to take into dreams---