It lighted upon the fleecy western sky ;

A symbol of the great, now dead and gone, Who leave a brilliant lustre when they die.

The sky back of the stream, reflecting, cast Resplendent lights of purple and of gold,

And all the rainbow colors, changing fast, From lurid red, 'till fading grey turns cold.

But here and there, the shimmering surface mars,

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

Its glossy face by interceding bars, And where the elements each other wars

The foamed-flecked sand shone like bright glittering stars.

A pine root clinging to some shoal here

Reached forth its various prongs and separate,

Resembling the antlers of a deer

With form beneath the stream, inanimate.

Far to the southwest rears a silent tower, A temple wherein man has never trod ;

Erected by an Omniptent Power,

To man was given, a symbol of his God.

An intervening gap, and then another,

Great edifice, its head to Heaven doth rear,

In silent memory' of an earlier brother, Who used it in defense of country dear.

Time's traces on its crest are visible,

The walls are slowly crumbling to decay,

Yet, grim and earlier relic, doth it tell Its history in its own inspiring way.

But from the crag of noble grandeur leaping Our vision falls upon the level plain,

Swift over it, the evening shadows creeping Leaves a dull dreary waste upon the main.

Beneath the plain a wall of dingy brown, Obscured the last faint rays of waning light.

The lark's last note sounds through the twilight gloom As monitory of the coming night.