Rainy Weather and Wrens 



to this latter fact during several years 

 (in every one of which long stretches of 

 these ''bad days^' — with peerlessly beauti- 

 ful breaks in them — were the prevaiHng 

 order well on toward June) whenever I 

 went forth from my home to a desolate tract 

 of land, not far away, which but recently 

 before had been the site of a noble wood. 

 I found here that the incessant showers 

 helped things in a marvelous manner, 

 hiding rapidly under their influence beneath 

 many a leafy covert the grievous hurt that 

 had been done in leveling the great trees 

 to make way for the extension and develop- 

 ment of the town. 



Bushes, vines and saplings soon sprang 

 into profuse growth on all sides. And 

 then the birds came, as to few places else- 

 where, and helped along not a little, singing 

 daily the wraiths of the trees as it were 

 into deep forgetfulness. 



And it happened somehow that, in the 

 whole throng of them, I learned to love 

 the Wrens best. This may have been, I 

 admit, because of previous prejudice in 



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