A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



flating its throat, but you should see this 

 tiny minstrel inflate its throat, which be- 

 comes like a large bubble, and suggests a 

 drummer-boy with his drum slung very high. 

 In this drum, or by the aid of it, the sound 

 is produced. Generally the note is very 

 feeble at first, as if the frost was not yet all 

 out of the creature's throat, and only one 

 voice will be heard, some prophet bolder 

 than all the rest, or upon whom the quick- 

 ening ray of spring has first fallen. And 

 it often happens that he is stoned for his 

 pains by the yet unpacified element, and is 

 compelled literally to "shut up" beneath a 

 fall of snow or a heavy frost. Soon, how- 

 ever, he lifts up his voice again with more 

 confidence, and is joined by others and still 

 others, till in due time, say toward the last 

 of the month, there is a shrill musical up- 

 roar, as the sun is setting, in every marsh 

 and bog in the land. It is a plaintive sound, 

 and I have heard people from the city speak 

 of it as lonesome and depressing, but to the 

 lover of the country it is a pure spring mel- 

 ody. The little piper will sometimes climb 

 a bulrush, to which he clings like a sailor to 

 a mast, and send forth his shrill call. There 

 is a Southern species, heard when you have 



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