The Black Swans 



from the sun by trees and awnings. 

 A very busy birdlet still imagines 

 that the spring is here and carries 

 twigs, and twitters all day long as if it 

 were still mid-June. This particular 

 wren has been known to be at work 

 constructing two or three different 

 nests at the same time. Billy declares 

 therefore that he must be either a 

 Mormon or a bachelor. At intervals 

 a robin repeats his brave spring song, 

 but somehow he has lost his "pep." 

 At sunset the plaintive notes of meadow 

 larks are still sometimes heard, and 

 purple martens "flit and run" through 

 their accustomed evening flights. 



The small grains and the hay crop 

 have been harvested. Red clover and 

 white are yielding their honey stores 

 and the bees are swarming. Evidently 

 the parent hives are hot and over- 

 crowded. Only yesterday a colony 

 from somewhere found and took pos- 

 session of the hollow oak, where once 

 the flickers lived; the same that for 



[46] 



