Chimney Rock stood alone like a pillar of fire struck by the setting sun."

Then my eye fell upon these words : "The sun set in the clouds ; but the glorious day, Parts not in gloom ; the thick veil is riven --

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

The river and the sky in lovely array

Are radiant now, with the light of Heaven.

"Like an aurora, or the flashing trace, Of Angel's flight to the utmost north,

The glory shines ; unwilling to deface

The beautiful, Night hovers o'er the earth.

"Gently, the chameleon colors fade, -- Slowly ascending to the zenith's height,

'Till lingering darkness buries all in shade, And Light and Beauty bid the world, 'good night.' "

Thus my beautiful dream of being the only and original poet of the Scotts Bluff country disappeared, for out of the past, some twenty years before I was born, and forty-four years before the old Gering bridge was built, one had seen it all and said it better than I. But the poet Cooke offers beautiful philosophy to us of the middle age, so that my disappointment is not so keen. I really wonder if this voice of eighteen forty-five was not reechoed from mountain and sky, while we were driving over the bridge in eighteen eighty-nine. At any rate, Cooke's advice to on peevish couple on this occasion will bear repeating now, as a solace to any regrets that one may have.

"Now, for the love of Love, and her soft bowers, Let's not confound the time with conference harsh. There's not a minute of our lives should stretch Without some pleasure, now."