UNFOLDING BUDS 



May 57 



UR literature of nature contains nothing, 

 it seems to me, more happy, as a tran- 

 script of the pageant of the vernal sea- 

 son in New England, than that quaint 

 calendar in the provincial tongue of 

 Hosea Biglow,* "Sunthin' in the Pastoral Line," from 

 which the following is quoted. 



What mirrored truth is in this picture : 



" The maple crimsons to a coral reef ; 

 The saffern swarms swing off from all the willers, 

 So plump they look like yaller caterpillars ; 

 Then gray hoss-chestnuts' leetle hands unfold, 

 Softer'n a baby's be at three days old." 



Here is another complete and exquisite touch : 

 " Young oak leaves mist the side-hill woods with pink." 

 * The Biglow Papers. By James Russell Lowell. 



