1 68 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



like a filmy veil over mountains fringed in green, while the clear, blue 

 sky above beheld itself in the crystal waters of the lake below. 

 Through it all wafted the scent of pines, spicy and sweet, — elusive 

 as a fairy's breath, but full of the enchanted wildness scattered 

 so profusely on all sides. 



A late robin flew out of the brush, crossed our path, and perch- 

 ing himself on a pine bough, looked out over the stretch of 

 purple world below. The last flush of day had died and we waited 

 the twilight to steal out of the heavens and spread its pall over 

 the beauty around us. The robin still lingered, and who knows 

 but what he, too, had stolen from his nest to watch for the stars 

 as one by one they blossomed in the blue field above and gently 

 sprinkled their golden shadows into the lap of the waiting lake 

 below. We lingered until the young moon came out of the west, 

 ushered by jeweled stars, and hanging like a lantern from a bridge 

 of pine boughs above, lighted the way to our cedar-bark cabin, 

 a picturesque abode overlooking the lake. 



The robin, too, no doubt had flown to his nest, and in the 

 sacred stillness, something of this seemed to echo through the 

 walls of our consciousness: 



"O God of Little Birds 



Who breathed into our wings to make us light 



And painted them with colors of His sky, 



All thanks for this fair day, for meat and drink — 



Sweet sky-born water caught in cups of stone, 



Sweet hedgerow berries washed of dust with dew. 



And thanks for these good little eyes of ours 



That spy the unseen enemies of man, 



And thanks for the good tools by Thee bestowed 



To aid our work of little gardeners, 



Trowels and pruning-hooks of living horn. 



Tomorrow we will fight borer and blight, 

 Forgive, Thy birds tonight their trespasses, 

 The stripping of a currant-bush or two." 



