the midnight sun
If they must pass the earlier day indoors , for them the gallery during the long , late afternoon , and the ghost of a twilight , and the long evenings far into the starry night . The ghost of a twilight indeed -- the South knows no other . Sometimes I have watched the long , splendid twilight come down over the wild Canadian forest -- slowly delaying ; creeping up the low mountains ; halting from hour to hour in the glades below ; shade after shade in the glorious sky of the west gradually merging into the dimness of the oncoming dusk ; the moments passing so slowly , the day fading so elusively , until , at last , when even the low moon has hung out its silver sign in the west and the stars are pricking through , it is still twilight along the lower earth . And still farther to the north , around the globe in the far upper Europe , with the polar circle below you , it is like living on a planet of eternal day to sit through the northern light and feel about you the all-pervasive twilight of the land of the midnight sun . But the night is so hasty here , and the day is swift ; and between them runs but a slender , dim thread . -LSB- Illustration : OLD PLANTATION VILLA ON ANNUNCIATION STREET . -RSB- The gallery is a feature of every house in this city that lives outdoors , be it big or little , humble or grand , or lowly or mean .