The Blessing of the Rain 



so blighted by a heavy rain that they do 

 not open afterward, remind me of the Aus- 

 trian violinist in " A Week in a French 

 Country House," who greatly admired an 

 English beauty, but confided to a friend 

 his reason for not offering to marry her : 



" She vould vash me, and I should 

 die." 



Many things are broken down and re- 

 quire tying up. If the rain has continued 

 for several days the chickweeds are ram- 

 pant, and overrun everything. New plants 

 that have been on the anxious seat during 

 the dry weather have decided to stay, and 

 are putting forth satisfactory leaves. 



The joyful Pear-trees shake their drops The cat-bird 

 down upon you, the cat-bird sits on the 

 grape trellis and inquires what you are do- 

 ing there. It is a way he has. He lives 

 in the Box arbor, and thinks he owns the 

 earth, and that our strawberries are his. 

 He scolds the cat, and defies the robin, 

 and has such a trig, gentlemanly air about 

 him, with his well-brushed dark coat, that 

 one might christen him Sir Charles Gran- 

 dison. He makes me a bow, and says 

 civil things (or uncivil) in his own tongue, 

 209 



