8 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



retire to some day ; in that autumn of golden 

 leisure of which, now and then, 



" When all his active powers are still," 



he has a pleasing vision. Oh yes, he means to 

 do something of that kind some day ; and even 

 while he talks of it he knows in his heart that 

 " some day " is only another name for " next day 

 after never." 



A few happy barn swallows (wise enough, or 

 simple enough, to be happy now) go skimming 

 over the grass, and a pair of robins and a pair 

 of bluebirds seem to be at home in the orchard ; 

 which they like none the worse, we may be sure, 

 the bluebirds, especially, because, along 

 with the house and the barn, it is falling into 

 decay. What are apple trees for, but to grow 

 old and become usefully hollow ? Otherwise they 

 would be no better than so many beeches or 

 butternuts. It is impossible but that every crea- 

 ture should look at the world through its own 

 eyes; and no bluebird ever ate an apple. A 

 purple finch warbles ecstatically, a white-throated 

 sparrow whistles in the distance, and now and 

 then, from far down the slope, I catch the up- 

 liftings of a hermit thrush. 



A man grows thoughtful, not to say senti- 

 mental, in such a place, surrounded by fields on 

 which so many years of human labor have been 



