The Hylas Voice is Heard 31 



life was in the over breeze and the subterranean 

 whispers. 



There were bluebirds with the sky on their 

 backs and the earth on their breasts, warbling 

 with that tender and unobtrusive delicacy of which 

 they have the sole secret. There were robins, 

 cheery and bold ; and there was the modest 

 phoebe, whose fellow the chickadee now is little 

 in evidence, going northward. There is much 

 talk of plagiarism in music, and it might be a 

 question which of these birds is the plagiarist of 

 the phoebe call, if it had not been for Paderewski s 

 daring and truthful assertion that there is no 

 proper theft in music, since no theme can be ab 

 solutely original, and the question depends on 

 the use of the theme. This lets out both the 

 phoebe and the chickadee, for each has an unde 

 niable right to the notes he was born with. The 

 song-sparrow, most celestially lovely of all the 

 songsters of our clime, is now in his first rich de 

 light in new light, new love, new home, new life. 

 He is a wonderful fellow for continuous joy ; 

 for sweet as all the others are, he will sing for 

 the beautiful love of song until November chills. 

 Other sparrows there are now to keep him com 

 pany, called by various names, but none of them 

 has quite the inspiration of this nonpareil of the 

 early fields and copses. There is pleasure now, 



