motes of tbe 1FU0bt 



all animal life, the magical influence of May 

 would be quite lost upon us. Birds and blos- 

 soms they are ever so intimately associated 

 that either suffers when the other is wanting. 

 The winter songsters, of which we have so many, 

 are, in fact, not overmuch given to singing until 

 well after the holidays, and it is in early Feb- 

 ruary when they ring out those wild choruses 

 that sound so strangely in the naked woods. 

 Is it too much to say that they are but prac- 

 tising in anticipation of the coming season ? 

 Whether this or not, it is now that the spring- 

 tide light fills the landscape, but with less dis- 

 tinctive brilliancy, it may be. As compared with 

 all the coming summer, there is, as coldly stated, 

 greater actinism now; but does the chickadee 

 recognize it, but under another name ? In bird- 

 language, it is May's search-light sent far ahead of 

 her coming, and it sweeps the rubbish of last year 

 from the air. It stimulates the birds as it does the 

 rambler, for vision is clearer now, and sounds come 

 from greater distances, and nothing of them is lost. 



Bill's dog cut short my meditations. A low 

 but most expressive growl brought me back to 

 the present, and there was little left of the moon- 

 light to make clear my homeward path. 



" Have you been a-dreamin' ? " asked the old 

 fisherman, coming up to me. " It 's nearer morn- 

 in' than midnight, and you 'd better be on the 

 move, unless you got cats' eyes." 

 54 



