The Marvelous Beauty of Spring 85 



lack of adding an element of cheer to the season. 

 Another foreground might be a pasture crowded 

 with the &quot; painted cup,&quot; or &quot; Indian paint brush/ 

 which now abounds in grounds a little moist, 

 as red as a cardinal s robe, but not at all a &quot; cup,&quot; 

 while very much recalling the look of a brush 

 dipped into red paint, such as the Indians who 

 once dwelt here were wont to use in adorning 

 their countenances. It is an interesting reminis 

 cence in history, that old Yankee name. In 

 the marshes, too, is now blooming the yellow 

 lady s slipper, and the crimson moccasin flower 

 in somewhat dryer grounds. Ferns of many 

 species are now rolling out of their curls, which 

 begin beneath the ground. In fine, there is an 

 exhaustless variety of beauty in the woods and 

 fields. 



Nor shall we wander over the realms of un- 

 trammeled and unneighboured Nature without the 

 inspiration and delight of the birds, most absolute 

 of the gifts of heaven, who live in the air and on 

 the earth alike, and in exuberance of love are now 

 filling all the fields and roadsides with their song. 

 One may see almost all the birds that come here 

 to stay, and not a few of these who will shortly 

 go northward. Orioles, both Baltimore and or 

 chard ; so many sparrows and warblers and fly 

 catchers ; the kingbird and the chimney swift, the 



