14 Spring 



desiring to rest under the shadow of the grey church 

 and the dark yew trees, a man will leave his body to 

 be burned, even as they burn the clothes of an in- 

 fected corpse ; yet his friends will gather and treasure 

 the incombustible remnant. But in any case solicitude 

 about burial is only an incidental proof and striking 

 illustration of a love that permeates life, and seems 

 almost as strong in the wild birds whose flight is in scorn 

 of space as in the vegetable fast-rooted and quiet in his 

 corner. When the English snowdrop and crocus are 

 cleaving the wet mould with their first protrusions of 

 green, the swallow is hawking and twittering round 

 the Pyramids ; yet a little while, and, seized with 

 home-sickness, he will come back to their withered 

 yellow and white. And it is not from love of the 

 English Spring, nor is it anything to him that under 

 the budding woods, where the rooks are building, the 

 fern is preparing new fronds : in all that long journey 

 his heart was held light and his spirit high by the 

 memory of a spot whose area is measurable by inches, 

 and where year after year his nest is made. His corner 

 of the window, his nook in the barn, his eave of the out- 

 house, thither so long as life and strength endure will 

 he return as regularly as if, in departing, he had but 

 stretched an elastic leash whose contraction drew him 

 back. Other birds (like the crow) that abide by the 

 same nest, keep an eye all the year round on the 

 family dwelling, or take possession of a hole in the 

 tree or a nook in the chimney as do the jackdaw and 



