FROM A NEW ENGLAND HILLSIDE. 



XIII. 



I WAS absent from home at the time of 

 the great storm on the eleventh, and on my 

 return yesterday found the snow only scat 

 tered in patches instead of completely cov 

 ering the country as it had done two or 

 three days before. Yet even this morning 

 there were some drifts remaining of a foot 

 or two in depth. With the temperature 

 above sixty degrees, however, these cannot 

 last long. 



My morning walk was rewarded by a 

 good handful of hepaticas, together with 

 two or three yellow stars of the cinque-foil, 

 which I found on a sunny slope, its first 

 appearance. This afternoon I found many 

 buds of the dog s-tooth violet just ready to 

 open, though none quite expanded. At 

 sunset the air was full of the ringing musi 

 cal notes of the frogs. I suppose one should 

 rather call it a chirping than singing, but 

 by whatever name it be called, it is very 

 pleasant to those that are fond of it. I 

 heard them first as I neared the bed of the 



