80 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



since. Then it happened that I came down 

 from Vermont (this also was in May) just 

 at the time when the shadbushes were in 

 their glory. Like the wild red-cherry trees, 

 as I saw them now, they seemed to fill the 

 world. Such miles on miles of a floral 

 panorama are among the memorable delights 

 of spring travel. 



For the cherry's sake I was glad that my 

 leaving home had been delayed a week or 

 two beyond my first intention ; though I 

 thought then, as I do still, that an earlier 

 start would have shown me something more 

 of real spring among the mountains, which, 

 after all, was what I had come out to see. 



The light showers through which I drove 

 over the hills from Littleton were gone be- 

 fore sunset, and as the twilight deepened I 

 strolled up the Butter Hill road as far as 

 the grove of red pines, just to feel the ground 

 under my feet and to hear the hermit 

 thrushes. How divinely they sang, one on 

 either side of the way, voice answering to 

 voice, the very soul of music, out of the 

 darkening woods ! I agree with a friendly 

 correspondent who wrote me, the other day, 



