Then came the night of the first
falling star. It was seen early in the morning, rushing over Winchester eastward, a line of flame high in the atmosphere.
"All mine!" He struck the deck with his long staff; the gold head flashed like a
falling star; very close behind him a silent old fellow in a richly embroidered black jacket alone of all the Malays around did not follow the masterful gesture with a look.
A burst of laughter replied to this volley; then the arm of the giant swung round; then was seen whirling through the air, like a
falling star, the train of fire.
It caught the
falling star and drove it on towards me, a rushing globe of fire, and as it came the star grew and took shape, and the shape it took was the shape of a woman.
Now as Little John stepped blithely along, thinking of nothing but of such things as the sweetness of the hawthorn buds that bedecked the hedgerows, or gazing upward at the lark, that, springing from the dewy grass, hung aloft on quivering wings in the yellow sunlight, pouring forth its song that fell like a
falling star from the sky, his luck led him away from the highway, not far from the spot where Arthur a Bland was peeping this way and that through the leaves of the thickets.
"Well, Flambeau," says the voice, "you really look like a Flying Star; but that always means a
Falling Star at last."
Nor was his name unheard or unador'd In ancient Greece; and in AUSONIAN land Men call'd him MULCIBER; and how he fell From Heav'n, they fabl'd, thrown by angry JOVE Sheer o're the Chrystal Battlements: from Morn To Noon he fell, from Noon to dewy Eve, A Summers day; and with the setting Sun Dropt from the Zenith like a
falling Star, On LEMNOS th' AEGAEAN Ile: thus they relate, Erring; for he with this rebellious rout Fell long before; nor aught avail'd him now To have built in Heav'n high Towrs; nor did he scape By all his Engins, but was headlong sent With his industrious crew to build in hell.
Wordsworth is always exulting in the fulness of Nature, Shelley is always chasing its
falling stars.'
The next fortnight was a period of many alternations; my existence during its lapse resembled a sky of one of those autumnal nights which are specially haunted by meteors and
falling stars. Hopes and fears, expectations and disappointments, descended in glancing showers from zenith to horizon; but all were transient, and darkness followed swift each vanishing apparition.
THE ARTICLE ON Mark Clark ["Rising Star,
Falling Star," June 2016] refers to Clark as "American Eagle" and attributes the origin to Ike.
Every
Falling Star is an excellent addition to libraries seeking to build a collection of first-person memoirs of global circumstances.