NATURE AND THE POETS 



contented musical soliloquy of the vireo, like the 

 whistle of a boy at his work, heard through all 

 our woods from May to September: 

 " Pretty green worm, where are you ? 

 Dusky-winged moth, how fare you, 

 When wind and rain are in the tree? 

 Cheeryo, cheerebly, chee, 

 Shadow and sun one are to me. 

 Mosquito and gnat, beware you, 

 Saucy chipmunk, how dare you 



Climb to my nest in the maple-tree, 

 And dig up the corn 

 At noon and at morn ? 

 Cheeryo, cheerebly, chee." 



Or the phoebe-bird, with her sweet April call and 

 mossy nest under the bridge or woodshed, or under 

 the shelving rocks ; or the brown thrasher mock- 

 ing thrush -^ calling half furtively, half archly from 

 the treetop back in the bushy pastures : " Croquet, 

 croquet, hit it, hit it, come to me, come to me, tight 

 it, tight it, you're out, you're out," with many 

 musical interludes; or the chewink, rustling the 

 leaves and peering under the bushes at you ; or 

 the pretty little oven-bird, walking round and round 

 you in the woods, or suddenly soaring above the 

 treetops, and uttering its wild lyrical strain; or, 

 farther south, the whistling redbird, with his crest 

 and military bearing, these and many others 

 should be full of suggestion and inspiration to our 

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