THE BLUEBIRD. 



WHEN Nature made the bluebird she 

 wished to propitiate both the sky and the 

 earth, so she gave him the color of the one 

 on his back and the hue of the other on his 

 breast, and ordained that his appearance in 

 spring should denote that the strife and war 

 between these two elements was at an end. 

 He is the peace-harbinger ; in him the celes- 

 tial and terrestrial strike hands and are fast 

 friends. He means the furrow and he means 

 the warmth ; he means all the soft, wooing 

 influences of the spring on the one hand, 

 and the retreating footsteps of winter on the 

 other. 



It is sure to be a bright March morning 

 when you first hear his note ; and it is as if 

 the milder influences up above had found a 

 voice and let a word fall upon your ear, so 

 tender is it and so prophetic, a hope tinged 

 with a regret. 



"Bermuda! Bermuda! Bermuda!" he 

 seems to say, as if both invoking and lament- 



