FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 69 



brush. But it was probably a railroad fire, 

 one of the thousands upon thousands that 

 occur every year all over the land, destroy 

 ing millions of dollars worth of valuable 

 property, and impoverishing the soil over 

 which they run. Is it not about time that 

 the railroad corporations were compelled to 

 take care that such disasters should not 

 occur ? It is not as if they could not be 

 prevented. They can be, and that without 

 serious difficulty. It is merely because we 

 are only partly civilized that we permit 

 them. 



To-day the Easter holidays are ending, 

 and the girls are trooping back to us, 

 rejoicing, as I am sure they always do, at 

 regaining their freedom among these hills, 

 though perchance with hearts aching a little 

 from the home partings. Then a few more 

 busy weeks at the books while all sorts of 

 distractions are calling upon them from 

 without, the whole world waking up again 

 to a new life, the white and fleecy clouds 

 floating in the blue sky, tree and shrub and 

 herb rushing exuberantly into blossom, the 

 birds singing, and the bees humming ; while 

 the steady old earth, which has already seen 

 so many, many summers, revolves upon its 

 axis shall I say, like a turkey on a spit ? 



