ONGED for, looked for, here at last! Over 
Pine Hills, songsparrow, first bird of the season, 
avant courier of the aerial hosts that will build 
their homes and summer with us! Here for a 
day only, but what matters that so long as he 
told us what we wanted most to know, that 
winter had packed his grip and was about to 
abdicate in favor of spring? To-day songspar- 
row is here again with his associates, robin and 
bluebird. The trio are always our first spring 
sometimes two, and often by 
Of the winter we are weary, 
Weary of the frost and snow, 
Longing for the sunshine cheery, 
And the brooklet’s gurgling flow; 
Gladly then we hear thee sing 
The reveille of spring, 
Robin’s come! 
Ring it out o’er hill and plain, 
Through the garden’s lonely bowers, 
Till the green leaves dance again, 
Till the air is sweet with flowers; 
Wake the cowslips by the rill, 
Wake the yellow daffodil! 
Robin’s come! 
mountain, down valley, across country to 
Sometimes one leads in the arrival, 
“The gentle law that each should be 
The other’s heaven and harmony,” 
the three sail in together. We give them our 
heart’s greeting, for however the world goes ill, 
these birds will sing in it still. 
17 
