The Children's Hour

Between the dark and the daylight,

When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day's occupations,

That is known as the children's hour.

I was working in my little garden just before dark when I looked up to see a pale, full moon on the rise in the eastern sky. The sky was much lighter than the picture depicts, and the thin clouds, tinged faintly with pink, were still reflecting a sun that had already set. I thought first of the "children's moon" that sometimes shines in daylight, and then Longfellow's poem popped into my mind and wouldn't pop out again.

Now the night is aglow with the bright, silvery light from this moon, and that means the Mille Fleur roosters perched high in the old juniper tree will periodically awaken and, in the first confusion of that wakefulness, mistake moonlight for sunlight. Momentarily believing they have overslept, they will hasten to greet the day with hearty cock crows. Eventually, they will realize their mistake, and tucking heads under wings, drop off to sleep again. This performance will repeat itself throughout this enchantingly moonlit night.

Unfortunately this does nothing to endure these residents of The One Acre Wood to our kindly, longsuffering neighbors, and for that, we are heartily sorry.