Read "The Star Dreamer" by Egerton Castle online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
O magic sleep! O comfortable bird That broodest o'er the troubled sea of the mind, Till it is hushed and smooth! . -KEATS (_Endymion_).
The atmosphere of Master Simon's laboratory was much the same, winter or summer. No extreme of heat or cold could penetrate this crypt, deep set as it was in the foundations of the keep; and, though against the long narrow windows, cut into the wall on the level of the moat, one could see the slender spikes of reed and rushy grass perpetually trembling in the airs, there was but little direct sunshine. Sometimes, however, downward thrusts, like spears, when Sol was high; or again when he was about to sink a level shaft, rose-red in winter, amber glowing in summer, would come driving in through the vaulted spaces, high above Master Simon's head and show to the eye that cared to notice, how dim and vapour-heavy was all the room below.