28 In Touch with Nature. 



The river is near by, and across the meadows 

 and beyond the wood I see, floating high overhead 

 and darkly limned against the leaden sky, restless 

 gulls that have wandered from the sea. The 

 naturalist has not yet shown that they have aught 

 to do with any change, but they are oftener seen 

 now than when all signs of winter have disap- 

 peared. This of late years ; but it was not always 

 so. In the long ago of colonial days, and when 

 the Dutch even were the only white people on the 

 Delaware, gulls were as frequent here as swallows 

 in midsummer. But something closer in touch 

 with intimations is near at hand : a flock of red- 

 winged blackbirds. Their keen senses have de- 

 tected the whispered promise, and we may well 

 believe with them that spring is not afar off. True, 

 the north winds may come again, laden with snow 

 and ice, but their fury will be in vain ; no material 

 damage will be wrought, and in the contest between 

 frost and fire, the sun will come off more than 

 conqueror. 



It is a strange habit that the rambler falls into, 

 this of merely cataloguing. Signs of spring ! 

 These I came to look for, but why not rest content 



