the wind tempered in that case at least, till one 

 day the sylph left the nest, as a thistle-down might 

 detach itself and sail away on the breeze. 



Birds have their home-trees, and one whose 

 traditions are of the pine is not drawn to build in 

 hardwoods. The woodthrush is associated with the 

 dogwood, as the catbird with the smilax, and the 

 oriole with the elm. There are ancient apple 

 orchards which have come to serve only the bees 

 and the birds ; but what temples of music in May 

 with the hum of bees, and in June with the song 

 of wrens! At this season you cannot do better 

 than to set out for one of these old-time orchards, 

 neglected of man and favored of heaven. 



The virile hum of honey- and carpenter-bees 

 descends from the flowery summits to the listener 

 beneath, the contented music of a race dwelling 

 overhead and nearer the skies than we. It is such 

 an apple Baldwin, pippin, or russet gnarled 

 and archaic in trunk and a bower of beauty above, 

 which becomes the home-tree of that feathered 

 gnome, the house-wren, a sprightly elf, living in 

 the depths of a tree trunk and yet full to the brim 

 of song. He may derive of the flowing sap some 

 genial trait and takes to the apple as a swift to the 



3 



