76 IValks in New England 



These Summer Visitations 



SUMMER makes hasty brief calls on spring, 

 and not many of them, either, this year. 

 She hurries in at the edge of a northeaster, 

 says howdy, and is gone before we fairly recog 

 nize her. But each time something happens to 

 the face of Nature ; a new lot of flowers take ad 

 vantage of the sunshine and smile at her invita 

 tion ; a new flight of birds suddenly arrives, and 

 at the same time the beetles and the worms and 

 the caterpillars, getting about their own business, 

 provide food for the songsters, thus getting trans 

 lated into a higher order of being, which they 

 could reach in no other way so quickly. This is 

 one of the seasons Hosea Biglow speaks of: 



&quot; For half our May s so awfully like Mayn t 

 Twould rile a Shaker, or an evrige saint.&quot; 



And yet who would have it otherwise, for the 

 beauty of it ? the very delays enhance its loveli 

 ness. Things of desire attained are never so sweet 

 in fulfilment ; and May is the charmer because 



