Their First Appearance. 91 



why the nests where we have so often seen them 

 cling are crumbled and deserted. This is why the 

 swallows come no more to their nests among the 

 rafters. 



How dark to us would be the dawn of spring if 

 on the empty sky we should watch for them in vain ! 

 How cold the summer days in which we heard no 

 more their snatches of sweet song, nor caught the 

 glitter of their sunny wings ! They would be to us as 

 to the poet the vanished faces of his friends — 



1 Something is gone from Nature since they died, 

 And summer is not summer, nor can be.' 



