LOVERS OF NATURE 219 



son is late, there occasionally come days which 

 awaken a new joy in the heart. Every recur- 

 ring spring one experiences this fresh delight. 

 There is nothing very tangible yet in awaken- 

 ing nature, but there is something in the air, 

 some sentiment in the sunshine and in the look 

 of things, a prophecy of life and renewal, that 

 sends a thrill through the frame. The first 

 sparrow's song, the first robin's call, the first 

 bluebird's warble, the first phoebe's note — who 

 can hear it without emotion? Or the first flock 

 of migrating geese or ducks — how much they 

 bring north with them ! When the red-shoul- 

 dered starlings begin to gurgle in the elms or 

 golden willows along the marshes and water- 

 courses, you will feel spring then; and if you 

 look closely upon the ground beneath them, you 

 will find that sturdy advanced guard of our 

 floral army, the skunk cabbage, thrusting his 

 spear-point up through the ooze, and spring 

 will again quicken your pulse. 



One seems to get nearer to nature in the early 

 spring days: all screens are removed, the earth 

 everywhere speaks directly to you; she is not 

 hidden by verdure and foliage; there is a pe- 

 culiar delight in walking over the brown turf of 

 the fields that one cannot feel later on. How 

 welcome the smell of it, warmed by the sun; 

 the first breath of the reviving earth. How 

 welcome the full, sparkling watercourses too, 

 everywhere drawing the eye; by and by they 

 will be veiled by the verdure and shrunken by 

 the heat. When March is kind, for how much 



