THE SCARCITY OF SKUNKS 107 



moment, for the loveliness and wonder of the 

 opening day came swift upon me. From the top 

 of a sapling, close by, a chewink sent his simple, 

 earnest song ringing down the wooded slope, 

 and, soft as an echo, floated up from the swampy 

 tangle of wild grape and azalea the pure notes 

 of a wood thrush, mellow and globed, and al- 

 most fragrant of the thicket where the white 

 honeysuckle was in bloom. Voices never heard 

 at other hours of the day were vocal now ; odors 

 and essences that vanish with the dew hung faint 

 in the air ; shapes and shadows and intimations 

 of things that slip to cover from the common 

 light, stirred close about me. It was very near 

 the gleam ! the vision splendid ! How close to a 

 revelation seems every dawn ! And this early 

 summer dawn, how near a return of that 



time when meadow, grove, and stream, 

 The earth and every common sight 

 To me did seem 

 Apparelled in celestial light. 



From the crest of my ridge I looked out over 

 the treetops far away to the Blue Hills still slum- 

 bering in the purple west. How huge and prone 

 they lie ! How like their own constant azure does 



