Midsummer Night Sounds 



may live within sound of the bells of a great 

 city, and yet find yourself fairly submerged 

 in the midsummer flood-tide of nature. 

 Brambles and vines and weeds and wild 

 growths of every kind will riot over your 

 premises unless you fight them constantly; 

 four-footed creatures will steal your garden 

 vegetables and your chickens; and real 

 country birds will wake you in the morn 

 ing with as loud and glad a chorus as you 

 can hear at the end of a mountain road. 

 I take heart of hope in all this, for it as 

 sures me that, if I should live to be a hun 

 dred, I shall not see nature stamped out, 

 even within the bounds of our most aggress 

 ive civilization. Massachusetts, the statis 

 ticians tell us, is the most densely populated 

 State of the Union, with the single excep 

 tion of her little New England sister, Rhode 

 Island. And yet, in the most populous cor 

 ner of Massachusetts, within ten miles of 

 the metropolis of Boston, there is an annual 

 revival of nature that is positively amazing. 

 I could take the reader to at least a dozen 

 spots, from all of which the city of Boston 

 is plainly visible, where, if you do not take 

 advantage of the highest view-point, you 

 109 



